Defender, who played internationally for 26 years, recalls his highs and lows and hits back at the misplaced anger of football snobs
“I remember the teacher having a go at me in front of the whole class, laying into me. He would later become a politician and the telling-off I got … ‘What are you going there for?! You’ll make fools of yourselves; you’re going to embarrass the country before the entire world.’ I was 18, thinking: ‘Why is it my fault?’” Not for the first time, Ildefons Lima laughs. Not for the last, either. There’s a grin. “He apologised afterwards,” he says.
It was June 1998 and a bunch of mates were going to play Brazil. It was Lima’s third game for the Andorra national team and his teacher wasn’t alone in thinking it was a ridiculous idea; this month, after 26 years and 137 games, Lima finally played his last, aged 43. As he pulled off the captain’s armband, the Tourbillon stadium, Sion, handed a standing ovation to the man who had just concluded the longest international career in history. So much for embarrassment. No shame, just pride. “I’ve read people say: ‘We knew Andorra because of Ildefons,’” he says.
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