5 Euro records that will probably never be broken

#2 Most Minutes Played in the Final Tournament Overall – Edwin Van der Sar – 1535 minutes

Even with veteran shot-stoppers Shay Given and Gianluigi Buffon sure to make appearances at this summer’s tournament, the record held by the second most decorated goalkeeper of all time, Edwin Van der Sar, looks unthreatened. Only Frenchman Lilian Thuram has played as many matches in the tournament as the Dutchman (16), but his minutes total still falls short.

To put the feat into perspective, if an individual player were to see their team lift the trophy in Paris next month, having played every minute of the group phase (nearly 300 minutes), as well as having seen each knockout round go to extra time, playing all the way through (840 minutes), that would still fall just under six hours short of Van der Sar’s total.

While goal-scoring and tight defences take a lot to surpass, merely showing up for a load of games should be a relatively easy record to shatter, right? Well, given the increased rotation we’re seeing by squads in major tournaments and the inconsistency sides are showing between championships, it’s practically unthinkable to envisage another individual from the new generation elapsing Edwin.