NAVAS, THE SECOND SEVILLISTA TO PLAY IN ALL 38 LEAGUE MATCHES IN THE 21ST CENTURY

Jesús Navas keeps going. Although some people thought that the man from Los Palacios was returning from Manchester to start his retirement, that perception soon changed. Those doubts have been completely dissipated, especially upon looking at his statistics since his return to Nervión. Although it had already been confirmed that he was the outfield player with more minutes than anyone else in the 2019/20 LaLiga (that statistic was confirmed before the final match had even been played), the Spanish international brought up another record by featuring against Valencia.

That appearance means Navas featured in all 38 league matches in the same season, the first time a Sevilla FC player has done that since the 2010/11 season. Navas did not achieve this by saving minutes, he only missed the first half of the match against Villarreal at La Cerámica in June. The only other player to have featured in every league match in a season this century is Álvaro Negredo, who featured in every league match in 2010/11, when Antonio Álvarez and Gregorio Manzano were in charge. Unlike Navas, the man from Madrid featured significantly less, being brought on nine times and being substituted off in another thirteen.

Of Negredo's 38 appearances in 10/11, he only played 90 minutes in 16 matches

Also, this is not the first time that Jesús Navas has made more league appearances in a season than anyone else. In fact, he has already done it three times. In 2007/08, his 36 appearances were enough to mean he featured more than anyone else, and he made 37 appearances in each of the two final seasons of his first spell at the club, in 2011/12 and 2012/13. 

This is the fourth time Navas has made the most league appearances in a season

Taking a look back, these are the players who have made more league appearances in a season than anyone else, since the last promotion in 2001. Notario and Casquero both made 37 appearances in the 2001/02 season, while Notario would again make 37 appearances the following season. Pablo Alfaro (37) and David Castedo (36) made more appearances than anyone else in the 2003/04 and 2004/05 seasons respectively. Palop led the way in the Eindhoven season with 36 and also in the Glasgow season with 34, but on the second occasion Dani Alves drew level with him.

In 2007/08 Jesús Navas topped the list for the first time with 36 matches, while Romaric's 36 appearances the following season put him top. Álvaro Negredo led in both 2009/10 and 2010/11, with 35 and 38 appearances respectively. The following two seasons, as already mentioned, saw Jesús Navas miss just one match in each season. Bacca and Gameiro were joint-top in 2013/14 with 35 appearances, but Bacca would pull clear in 2014/15 with 37 appearances. Sergio Rico played in 34 matches in the Basel season, and both him and Nzonzi would make 33 appearances in 2016/17. In the two most recent seasons, two Frenchmen made more appearances than anyone else, with 35: Lenglet in 2017/18 and Ben Yedder in 2018/19.