Ildefons Lima

Lima was born in Barcelona, Catalonia^[2] to an Andalusian father and a Catalan mother.^[3] His family moved to Andorra when he was two months old.^[4]

Lima's first years as a senior were spent with FC Andorra, playing one season each in the Spanish third and fourth divisions. Subsequently, he played at both levels with RCD Espanyol B and UE Sant Andreu, splitting the following campaign abroad between Ionikos F.C. of Greece and C.F. Pachuca in Mexico.^[5]

In the summer of 2002, Lima returned to Spain, remaining one and a half seasons at newly relegated UD Las Palmas in the Segunda División. He scored his only two goals as a professional in the country on 22 December 2002 and 14 June 2003, respectively against Levante UD (1–1) and CD Numancia (1–0 away win);^[6][7] he appeared just three times in 2003–04, ended with relegation.^[8] He moved in January 2004 to another team in that league, Polideportivo Ejido, and spent the following campaign with Rayo Vallecano in division three.^[9]

Lima then played four years with US Triestina Calcio 1918 in Italy.^[10] With the Trieste side, he was occasionally used as a forward at the request of elusive chairman Flaviano Tonellotto.^[11] In 2009, aged nearly 30, he switched countries again, signing for AC Bellinzona of the Swiss Super League.^[12]

After two seasons in Switzerland and one back at Triestina,^[13] Lima signed again for FC Andorra, now of the Primera Catalana, instead of several offers to play in the principality's Primera Divisió.^[14] On 12 June 2014, he joined the latter league's champion FC Santa Coloma.^[15] He scored for them on 8 July in the first qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League away to FC Banants, as they advanced on away goals;^[16] he also claimed four national championships in a row.^[17]

Having spent four years with Santa Coloma, Lima signed with Inter Club d'Escaldes in August 2018,^[18] winning their first league in history in 2019–20 and repeating the feat the next two campaigns.^[17] Following another spell of the same length, he returned to FC Andorra to play for the reserve team, with the club now owned by Gerard Piqué.^[19]

Lima made his debut for Andorra aged 17 years and 6 months, in the country's second ever game on 22 June 1997, scoring in a 4–1 friendly defeat in Estonia, becoming their youngest player and goalscorer.^[19] In the process, he earned more than 130 caps.^[20][21]

In June 2009, near the end of the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign, Lima scored his first competitive goal for over eight years and six years overall, netting the last goal of a 5–1 away loss against Belarus. On 9 September 2014, in Andorra's first match of the UEFA Euro 2016 qualification phase, he netted a sixth-minute penalty to give the side a 1–0 lead over Wales, but in an eventual 1–2 home defeat.^[22]

After Óscar Sonejee, Lima was the second Andorran to reach a century of caps, playing his 100th game on 1 June 2016, a 2–0 friendly loss to Estonia in Tallinn.^[23] On 22 February 2017 he opened a 2–0 away win over San Marino in another exhibition game, ending an 86-game winless run.^[24]

Lima surpassed Sonejee's national record of 106 internationals on 16 August 2017, when he played a friendly against Qatar in Burton-on-Trent.^[25] In 2020, the Andorran Football Federation removed him from the team – against the wishes of coach Koldo Álvarez – when the player spoke out against football resuming in the principality without COVID-19 testing. FIFPRO, the world's trade union for footballers, called for FIFA to intervene in his favour.^[26]

On 3 June 2021, Lima became just the third European footballer (after Billy Meredith and Jari Litmanen) to be capped in four different decades when playing in a friendly defeat to Republic of Ireland.^[27] On 10 June 2022, after featuring five minutes of the 2–1 victory over Liechtenstein in a UEFA Nations League fixture, he became at 41 years and 6 months Andorra's oldest player ever, breaking Juli Sánchez's record.^[28][29][30]

On 16 June 2023, the 43-year-old Lima became the oldest player to appear at a UEFA European Championship qualifying match.^[31] He retired from the national team after a Euro 2024 qualifier against Switzerland on 12 September 2023; he was substituted after 23 minutes to a standing ovation by both sets of supporters and replaced by Ricard Fernández, a player born two years into his international career. His 26-year spell for his country was the longest in men's football history.^[32][19]

Lima's record of youngest-ever capped player was broken by Marc Pujol in 2000, by one month.^[33][34]

Despite debuting for the Andorra national team when he was 17, Lima became a citizen of the country when he lived there for 20 years.^[4] His older brother, Antoni, was also a footballer and a defender. He too spent most of his career in the lower leagues of Spain, and the pair shared teams at Ionikos.^[35][36]

Club

More information Club, Season ...

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition^[37]

Club	Season	League			National cup		Continental		Other		Total
		Division	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
FC Andorra	1996–97	Segunda División B	0	0	0	0	0	0	—		0	0
	1997–98		32	0	0	0	0	0	—		32	0
	1998–99	Tercera División	26	2	0	0	0	0	—		26	2
	Total		58	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	58	2
Espanyol B	1999–2000	Tercera División	1	0	0	0	0	0	—		1	0
Sant Andreu	2000–01	Tercera División	25	2	0	0	0	0	—		25	2
Ionikos	2001–02	Super League Greece	0	0	0	0	0	0	—		0	0
Pachuca	2002	Liga MX	3	1	0	0	0	0	—		3	1
Las Palmas	2002–03	Segunda División	22	2	1	0	0	0	—		23	2
	2003–04		3	0	0	0	0	0	—		3	0
	Total		25	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	26	2
Poli Ejido	2003–04	Segunda División	2	0	0	0	0	0	—		2	0
Rayo Vallecano	2004–05	Segunda División B	34	1	0	0	0	0	—		34	1
Triestina	2005–06	Serie B	21	0	0	0	0	0	—		21	0
	2006–07		34	1	2	0	0	0	—		36	1
	2007–08		21	0	3	0	0	0	—		24	0
	2008–09		4	0	2	0	0	0	—		6	0
	Total		80	1	7	0	0	0	0	0	87	1
Bellinzona	2009–10	Swiss Super League	24	4	0	0	0	0	—		24	4
	2010–11		19	0	1	0	0	0	—		20	0
	Total		43	4	1	0	0	0	0	0	44	4
Triestina	2011–12	Lega Pro Prima Divisione	17	2	0	0	0	0	—		17	2
FC Andorra	2012–13	Primera Catalana	17	5	0	0	0	0	—		17	5
	2013–14		28	10	0	0	0	0	—		28	10
	Total		45	15	0	0	0	0	0	0	45	15
Santa Coloma	2014–15	Primera Divisió	12	3	4	4	2	1	1	0	19	8
	2015–16		17	4	2	1	2	1	—		21	6
	2016–17		18	0	2	0	2	0	0	0	22	0
	2017–18		17	3	1	1	2	1	1	0	20	5
	2018–19		0	0	0	0	3	0	0	0	3	0
	Total		64	10	9	6	9	3	2	0	84	19
Inter d'Escaldes	2018–19	Primera Divisió	15	0	1	0	–	–	—		16	0
	2019–20		20	2	1	0	–	–	—		21	2
	2020–21		10	1	1	0	1	0	1	1	13	2
	2021–22		8	2	0	0	3	0	1	0	12	2
	2022–23		0	0	0	0	3	0	0	0	3	0
	Total		53	5	3	0	7	0	2	1	65	6
FC Andorra B	2022–23	Tercera Catalana	13	0	–	–	–	–	—		13	0
Career total			463	45	21	6	16	3	4	1	504	55

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International

More information National team, Year ...

Appearances and goals by national team and year

National team	Year	Apps	Goals
Andorra[38][20]	1997	2	1
	1998	7	0
	1999	8	0
	2000	8	1
	2001	3	1
	2002	4	1
	2003	2	0
	2004	5	0
	2005	5	0
	2006	0	0
	2007	6	0
	2008	6	1
	2009	5	2
	2010	4	0
	2011	6	0
	2012	7	0
	2013	6	0
	2014	6	2
	2015	7	1
	2016	6	0
	2017	8	1
	2018	8	0
	2019	9	0
	2020	0	0
	2021	5	0
	2022	1	0
	2023	3	0
Total		137	11

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Scores and results list Andorra's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Lima goal.^[38][20]

More information No., Date ...

List of international goals scored by Ildefons Lima

No.	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	22 June 1997	Linnastaadion, Kuressaare, Estonia	Estonia	1–3	1–4	Friendly
2	2 September 2000	Communal d'Aixovall, Andorra La Vella, Andorra	Cyprus	2–1	2–3	2002 FIFA World Cup qualification
3	25 April 2001	Lansdowne Road, Dublin, Republic of Ireland	Republic of Ireland	1–0	1–3
4	27 March 2002	Ta' Qali Stadium, Ta' Qali, Malta	Malta	1–0	1–1	Friendly
5	4 June 2008	Comunal d'Aixovall, Andorra la Vella, Andorra	Azerbaijan	1–1	1–2
6	11 February 2009	S. Darius and S. Girėnas, Kaunas, Lithuania	Lithuania	1–2	1–3
7	6 June 2009	Neman Stadium, Grodno, Belarus	Belarus	1–5	1–5	2010 FIFA World Cup qualification
8	9 September 2014	Estadi Nacional, Andorra la Vella, Andorra	Wales	1–0	1–2	UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying
9	13 October 2014		Israel	1–1	1–4
10	11 October 2015		Belgium	1–2	1–4
11	22 February 2017	Olimpico di Serravalle, Serravalle, San Marino	San Marino	1–0	2–0	Friendly

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Santa Coloma

• Primera Divisió: 2014–15, 2015–16, 2016–17, 2017–18^[39]
• Copa Constitució: 2018

Inter d'Escaldes

• Primera Divisió: 2019–20, 2020–21, 2021–22^[17]
• Copa Constitució: 2020
• Andorran Supercup: 2020, 2021

• List of men's footballers with 100 or more international caps