Across the entirety of West Ham United’s 130-year history, only five players have ever turned out for the Premier League giants aged 40 or over.
Lukasz Fabianski, of course, is the most recent of that historic quintet.
Fabianski bid farewell to West Ham at the end of last season, though the former Arsenal goalkeeper has no intention of retiring and hanging up his gloves just yet.
Teddy Sheringham is the oldest outfield player to wear the claret and blue shirt in the Premier League era.
The legendary Billy Bonds made his final West Ham United appearance aged 41, meanwhile, placing him between Charlie Bicknell and all-time record holder Jim Barrett on the podium.
Barrett featured for the 463rd and last time at the ripe old age of 47, drawing a line under a staggering career which both started before and ended after World War Two.
In comparison, former Hammers centre-back Jose Fonte is a relative spring chicken.
Yet, eight years after West Ham United paid Southampton £10 million to sign a then-33-year-old Jose Fonte, few would have guessed that the evergreen colossus would still be going strong nearly a decade later.
Jose Fonte during Casa Pia AC v FC Porto - Liga Portugal Betclic
Photo by Gualter Fatia/Getty Images
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Former West Ham United and Southampton defender Jose Fonte signs new contract in Portugal
In fact, the man himself did not envisage his professional career lasting as long as this.
Back in 2020, Jose Fonte said that he hoped to carry on playing, preferably for another two or three seasons. Five years on, the former Portugal international has now signed a contract extension which will keep him in the game until the age of 42 at least.
An eternal fan favourite at St Mary’s, Southampton hero Jose Fonte struggled to live up to expectations at the London Stadium. And, when Fonte left West Ham for China, it appeared for all the world that his time in the European game was up.
There must be something in the Iberian water, then. Because, like Real Madrid and Porto legend Pepe, Fonte continues to brazenly defy Father Time.
Fonte now at Casa Pia after winning trophies at Lille and Braga
Jose Fonte was a man reborn when returning from the Far East to join Lille – an experienced old head in a youthful, Ligue 1-winning team – before securing the Taca de Liga trophy upon his return to Portugal with Braga.
Now, a man who won the Football League Trophy with Alan Pardew’s Southampton all the way back in 2010 is putting his considerable nous and supreme defensive instincts to very good use at Casa Pia.
Jose Fonte played 25 league matches and over 2,000 minutes last season, captaining Casa Pia to an impressive ninth place finish. So, make no mistake, the contract extension bestowed upon him this week is no gimmick. There is nothing charitable about this decision.
Purely, a club retaining the services of their influential skipper, in the knowledge that Jose Fonte continues to prove that age is nothing more than a number.
His extension announced to a soundtrack of Frank Sinatra’s ‘My Way’, if Fonte does reflect on his ‘regrets’ – ‘I’ve had a few’, to quote the old crooner himself – then that ill-fated spell at West Ham certainly feels like an outlier in a career full of successes and surprises.
He surely won’t go on for as long as Jim Barrett did.
But, with his 42nd birthday only a few months away and the ink still wet on a new one-year deal, only the bravest of critics would bet against age finally catching up with Jose Fonte any time soon.