Australian footballer Aivi Luik, whose family roots reach back to Estonia, has added another record to a career built on persistence — and apparently coffee and chocolate.
Last week, Aivi Luik became the oldest football player to appear in the group stage or league phase of the UEFA Women’s Champions League. Playing the full 90 minutes for Swedish club BK Häcken against Inter Milan on 22 September, Aivi set the record at 41 years and 188 days.
Asked about the milestone, Aivi didn’t seem particularly interested in making a fuss about the number. “I still feel young,” she said after the match. Her secret? “Coffee and chocolate.”
Apparently, the secret to making football history is coffee and chocolate. Fair enough.
From Australia, with Estonian roots
Aivi was born in Perth and began playing football in Australia. Her Estonian connection comes through her mother, who was born in Sweden to Estonian refugee parents before moving to Australia at age 21.
There is quite a career behind that latest record. Aivi has represented Australia 45 times, played at two FIFA Women’s World Cups and the Tokyo Olympics, and was part of the Matildas team that won the 2010 AFC Women’s Asian Cup. Her club career has taken her through ten countries.
Football entered Aivi’s life early. She has recalled watching the men’s FIFA World Cup as a nine-year-old in 1994 and deciding that becoming a footballer was what she wanted to do. Getting to some of football’s biggest stages, however, was anything but straightforward.
Aivi made her Matildas debut in 2010 and was part of Australia’s AFC Women’s Asian Cup-winning team that year. But she missed selection for the 2011 and 2015 World Cups, and injuries ruled her out of Australia’s 2016 Olympic campaign. In 2019, after years of continuing to play, she finally made her World Cup debut at 34.
Two years later came another long-held goal. At 36, Aivi made her Olympic debut in Tokyo — 11 years after first representing Australia. She retired from international football after the Games, but even that turned out not to be quite the end: Aivi returned to the Matildas and went on to make Australia’s squad for the 2023 Women’s World Cup.
Still making history
Aivi joined Swedish club BK Häcken in 2022 and has stayed ever since. After helping the club win its first Swedish women’s league title in 2025, she considered finishing her career on a high — then decided to sign on for another year.
In May this year, Aivi helped Häcken win the inaugural UEFA Women’s Europa Cup, defeating fellow Swedish club Hammarby 4–2 on aggregate. She played both legs of the final and, at 41 years and 44 days in the second match, became the oldest player to appear in — and win — a UEFA women’s club final.
There is a rather wonderful piece of perspective hidden in UEFA’s statistics. Aivi made her European club competition debut for Ukrainian side Naftokhimik in September 2008. Häcken teammate Felicia Schröder, who scored a hat-trick in the second leg of this year’s Europa Cup final, was one year old at the time.
Now Aivi has another record beside her name. Häcken lost their opening Champions League league-phase match against Inter 1–0, but Aivi played all 90 minutes. In doing so, she surpassed the previous age record of 39 years and 234 days, set by Czech footballer Petra Divišová for Slavia Praha in 2024.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about Aivi’s career isn’t the age and experience attached to these achievements. It is how many times the story could reasonably have ended before she reached them. Instead, there was another match, another country, another tournament — and another chance to walk onto a football pitch.
The Häcken profile gives Aivi’s motto as: “Never give up.” We like that. And now we know coffee and chocolate may help too.
Read more
Australian soccer player of Estonian origin now oldest in the UEFA Champions League | ERR
Eesti juurtega Austraalia kaitsjast sai Meistrite liiga vanim mängija | Soccernet.ee
