Europe's most utilized player, ever.

If I asked you which European player had been the most utilized in all competitive matches throughout the history of the World Cup and the European Championship, who would you guess it was?

This includes all the qualifiers of course so don't limit yourself to players from nations who regularly compete in the finals of these tournaments. Let's remember, too, that the number of qualifying matches played by each team has substantially increased since the break-ups of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia.

Could it be German workhorse Lothar Matthäus, who took part in five World Cups and six European Championships from 1980 to 2000? Italian defender Paolo Maldini, who traveled to four World Cups as well as all the European Championship campaigns in between? Maybe French hero Zinédine Zidane? Or perhaps a goalkeeper—their longevity tends to be longer than that of position players—like Edwin van der Sar? Peter Schmeichel? Gigi Buffon?

Maybe someone like Robert Prosinečki, who played first for the united Yugoslavia and then Croatia? Or Matthias Sammer, the East German who subsequently played on the unified German team?

Nope, it's someone you've never heard of in your life: Latvia's Vitālijs Astafjevs. Astafjevs has taken part in every qualifying campaign since Latvia achieved its independence, from 1994 up through 2010. In that time, he has played in an astonishing 83% of all the minutes played by the Latvian national team. He has taken part in 86 of Latvia's 94 matches, and only two of those as a substitute.

Latvia qualified for the 2004 European Championship in Portugal, giving Astafjevs the chance to shine on the big stage for three matches. He has scored 8 goals and received 15 yellow cards in all those minutes, and no red cards.

See the full ranking for details, but other players in the top ten you've never heard of include the Armenian defender Sargis Hovsepyan, Romanian midfielder Dorinel Munteanu, and midfielder Jeff Strasser of Luxembourg.

Italy captain Fabio Cannavaro is all but guaranteed to overtake Astafjevs in minutes played in South Africa though, all he has to do is play just 8 minutes.  Perhaps the 39 year old Mr. Astafjevs will retake this impressive record should he participate in the qualifying campaign for Euro 2012, something he's given no indication of not intending to do.