Barcelona star to finish year with most minutes in world football | OneFootball

A leading member of the defensive ranks at La Liga giants Barcelona will close out the year with more minutes played than any other player in world football.

That’s according to Mundo Deportivo, citing statisticians the CIES Sports Observatory, who point towards Jules Koundé as the player in question.

Stopper Koundé, for his part, has of course long played a leading role at club and international level alike.

So much so that, over the course of the year to date, he has appeared in a total of 69 official matches across all competitions.

This is more than any other player in the professional game, ahead of Fluminense’s Jhon Arias (67), and Real Madrid midfielder Federico Valverde (66).

Koundé also leads the way when it comes to minutes played in 2024, with a tally of 5,872.

Expected to feature from the off once more in Barcelona’s final fixture of the year against Atlético Madrid this weekend, the former Sevilla man, in turn, will become the only player in football to play 70 official games in 2024.

Conor Laird – GSFN