Ildefons Lima Solà (born 10 December 1979) is a professional footballer who plays as a central defender for FC Andorra and the Andorra national team.
![]() Lima with Andorra in 2016 | |||
Personal information | |||
---|---|---|---|
Full name | Ildefons Lima Solà | ||
Date of birth | (1979-12-10) 10 December 1979 (age 42) | ||
Place of birth | Barcelona, Spain | ||
Height | 1.92 m (6 ft 4 in) | ||
Position(s) | Centre-back | ||
Club information | |||
Current team | FC Andorra | ||
Youth career | |||
Damm | |||
Senior career* | |||
Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
1997–1999 | FC Andorra | 64 | (2) |
1999–2000 | Espanyol B | 1 | (0) |
2000–2001 | Sant Andreu | 25 | (2) |
2001–2002 | Ionikos | 0 | (0) |
2002 | Pachuca | 3 | (1) |
2002–2003 | Las Palmas | 25 | (2) |
2004 | Poli Ejido | 2 | (0) |
2004–2005 | Rayo Vallecano | 34 | (1) |
2005–2009 | Triestina | 79 | (1) |
2009–2011 | Bellinzona | 43 | (4) |
2011–2012 | Triestina | 17 | (2) |
2012–2014 | FC Andorra | 45 | (15) |
2014–2018 | Santa Coloma | 84 | (18) |
2018–2022 | Inter d'Escaldes | 53 | (5) |
2022– | FC Andorra | 0 | (0) |
National team‡ | |||
1997– | Andorra | 134 | (11) |
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 22 May 2022 ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 10 June 2022 |
He has played club football in Spain, Greece, Mexico, Italy, Switzerland and Andorra. At international level, Lima holds the records for most appearances and most goals for Andorra as of 2022.[1]
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, playing one and a half seasons with UD Las Palmas in the second tier and moving in January 2004 to another club in that league, Polideportivo Ejido. He spent the following campaign with Rayo Vallecano in division three.
Lima then played four years with U.S. Triestina Calcio in Italy.[6] With the Trieste side, he was occasionally used as a forward at the request of elusive chairman Flaviano Tonellotto.[7] In 2009, aged nearly 30, he switched countries again, signing for AC Bellinzona of the Swiss Super League.
After two seasons in Switzerland and one back at Triestina,[8] Lima signed again for FC Andorra, now of the Primera Catalana, instead of several offers to play in the principality's Primera Divisió.[9] On 12 June 2014, he joined the latter league's champion FC Santa Coloma.[10] 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.[11]
Lima made his debut for Andorra aged 17, in the country's second ever game on 22 June 1997, scoring in a 4–1 friendly defeat in Estonia. He went on to lead the national team's scoring charts, and also amassed more than 130 caps.[12][13]
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 1–5 away defeat 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 loss.[14]
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.[15] On 22 February 2017 he opened a 2–0 away win over San Marino in another exhibition game, ending an 86-game winless run.[16]
Lima surpassed Sonejee's national record of 106 internationals on 16 August 2017, when he played a friendly against Qatar in Burton-on-Trent.[17] 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.[18]
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.[19]
Despite debuting for the Andorran national team when he was 17, Lima only became a citizen when he turned 20 years of residence in the country.[4][vague] 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.[20][21]
National team | Year | Apps | Goals |
---|---|---|---|
Andorra | |||
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 | |
Total | 134 | 11 |
No. | Date | Venue | Opponent | Score | Result | Competition |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 22 June 1997 | Linnastaadion, Kuressaare, Estonia | ![]() | 1–3 | 1–4 | Friendly |
2 | 2 September 2000 | Communal d'Aixovall, Andorra La Vella, Andorra | ![]() | 2–1 | 2–3 | 2002 FIFA World Cup qualification |
3 | 25 April 2001 | Lansdowne Road, Dublin, Republic of Ireland | ![]() | 1–0 | 1–3 | |
4 | 27 March 2002 | Ta' Qali Stadium, Ta' Qali, Malta | ![]() | 1–0 | 1–1 | Friendly |
5 | 4 June 2008 | Comunal d'Aixovall, Andorra la Vella, Andorra | ![]() | 1–1 | 1–2 | |
6 | 11 February 2009 | S. Darius and S. Girėnas, Kaunas, Lithuania | ![]() | 1–2 | 1–3 | |
7 | 6 June 2009 | Neman Stadium, Grodno, Belarus | ![]() | 1–5 | 1–5 | 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification |
8 | 9 September 2014 | Estadi Nacional, Andorra la Vella, Andorra | ![]() | 1–0 | 1–2 | UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying |
9 | 13 October 2014 | ![]() | 1–1 | 1–4 | ||
10 | 11 October 2015 | ![]() | 1–2 | 1–4 | ||
11 | 22 February 2017 | Olimpico di Serravalle, Serravalle, San Marino | ![]() | 1–0 | 2–0 | Friendly |