Fulham goalkeeper Antti Niemi believes at 35 he has many more years left at the top level.

The Finn told fulhamfc.com: "The mentality of football has changed over the years; the attitude of footballers now is that of an athlete, it has changed from 20-25 years ago where you would train and play," revealed Antti. "Being a footballer you are aware of your fitness every day of the week, what you eat, what extra training you can be doing and how to rest properly. When all of these things are put together it gives an insight as to why careers are being prolonged.

"As a goalkeeper you obviously don't do that much running and you rarely get tackled so the risk of injury is slightly smaller than someone who is always making tackles and being tackled themselves. The stress and strains that the outfield players undertake during their career is more than that of the goalkeeper which is why you see the likes of David James still going well past 35, hopefully I can do the same."