He will become the first footballer in history to participate in 6 World Cups! He takes the face of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo
Article by Alexandru Tomuțiu – Published Wednesday, June 10, 2026 9:53 p.m. / Updated Wednesday, June 10, 2026 9:56 p.m.
Guillermo Ochoa will make history on Thursday at the Estadio Azteca, becoming the first player to appear in six World Championship finals. Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo will also reach this milestone, but Ochoa, who plays for AEL Limassol (Cyprus), will tick it off before them.
The 40-year-old Mexican goalkeeper is expected to start the opening match against South Africa (June 11, 10pm), a landmark moment in a career of exceptional longevity.
With 153 selections, Ochoa, who made his debut for the national team on December 14, 2005, reaches this record ahead of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, who were also present at the competition.
The start of his Worlds adventure was spent on the bench in both 2006 and 2010. If the first experience was seen as a learning experience, the second was a “very, very hard blow” as he was already the team's starter. “That was my trigger. I understood that if I wanted to be successful, I had to have the courage to leave Mexico,” testified Ochoa, who at the time represented Club America.
Guillermo Ochoa: “I was suspended for two months and then acquitted”
Moving to Europe, however, brought new challenges. “No Mexican goalkeeper had ever come to Europe. The opening of this road gave me additional strength“, he explained, according to abola.pt. His non-EU passport closed the doors of bigger clubs. “They said: “It's good. But we keep the non-EU place for a striker or a defender. Not for a goalkeeper”, he added.
One of the biggest failures of his career was his move to PSG in 2011. “It's a shame. We had an agreement before the Qataris arrived,” he regretted. A positive drug test for clenbuterol, a substance present in contaminated meat in Mexico, suspended his career for two and a half months and voided the deal. “I was suspended and then acquitted,” he clarifies.
Then came Ajaccio, the club for which he played between 2011 and 2014. Ochoa fondly remembers president Alain Orsoni, who was assassinated in January 2026. “He believed in me, gave me confidence and changed my career. In the end, he was like a father,” said Ochoa.
Guillermo Ochoa, the goalkeeper of Mexico
His performances in France, notably against PSG and Marseille, and starting at the 2014 World Cup catapulted his career. The match against Brazil in that tournament, which ended 0-0, was, he said, a decisive “turning point” in his career. “There was a before and an after. Before, it was: 'Okay, Ochoa, we know who you are.'
But after, everyone knew me in newspapers, on TV, in Japan, in Saudi Arabia… Everywhere. People still talk to me about it on the street. That match will stay with me for the rest of my life,” Ochoa recalled.
