What’s My Age Again?
October 18th, 2005 by Alan HylandsLong gone are the days when asking a lady her age was considered the height of insulting behaviour but increasingly it seems the football world should be using this course of action when considering the legitimacy of many African players and their alleged ages.
Tumo Mokone on news24.com tells the supposedly well known southern African joke of:
“How old are you?” a foreign visitor in an African country asks a keen footballer.
“My birth age or my soccer age?” replies the footballer.
and makes it very clear for readers that while in a comedy context the joke isn?t exactly side splitting, in a footballing context it is even less amusing and has the potential to cast a shadow over the whole of African football.
The oft cited economic reasoning behind age cheating where a player will adopt the identity of a younger brother (or sometimes sister as in the case of Zimbabwe?s Sijabuliso ?Pope? Moyo who adopted his younger sister Pope?s name when questioned about being too old to play in an U17s tournament) is no doubt the main factor behind the often blatant attempts to make a player appear younger than they really are.
The Sting
Using illegal methods such as passport tampering in countries where the quality and validity of public records is often questionable is an easy way to take a twenty five year old player and play him in a Youth Championship where if he is spotted by a European club it is easy to tell them that he is only seventeen years old. The player?s old club and family get the cash windfall while the new club in question gets a player a good five years or more older than they thought they were getting. At it?s base level it is nothing more than fraud and when the African footballing authorities are willing to turn a blind eye and put their trust in dubious documents, never worrying how authentic they are, then one major level of policing this infringement has been removed.
Roger Milla and Other Accused
Roger Milla playing for Cameroon
Players such as Cameroon?s World Cup hero Roger Milla, West Brom?s Nigerian striker Kanu and former Nigerian winger Finidi George have all been dogged throughout their careers with (as yet) unproven rumours as to their actual ages and with Milla, in particular, having played and scored in the World Cup finals in USA ?94 aged 42 years 1 month and 8 days we have to ask the question, just what age was the tournament’s oldest goal-scorer really? 42? 45? 48? Over fifty? The mind boggles.
Worrying Time at Inter Milan
Obafemi Martins
Recent incidents such as the passport dispute involving Internazionale striker Obafemi Martins have again brought the issue to light in one of Europe?s top leagues with Martins’ date of birth on his passport stating 28 October 1984 while the website of the Nigeria Football Association (NFA) said he was born on 1 May 1978. Those missing six years would mean quite a difference in transferable value for a valuable asset like Martins for a prestigious club such as Inter Milan, possibly the difference between a valuation of ?15 million and ?5 million which is quite a drop even for Inter Milan. Martins of course furiously denied the date of birth on the NFA site was correct and demanded it be immediately changed to end any further embarrassment to either him or his employers but the seeds of doubt were again planted in the heads of fans, journalists and, no doubt, other clubs as to his honesty.
Ghana To America To Nike
Freddy Adu
The biggest question marks of all currently are being hinted at over the real age of American wonderkid Freddy Adu, the sixteen year old star of DC United and the MLS?s highest paid player. While his physique, even as a fourteen or fifteen year old, made many watchers raise an eyebrow over the authenticity of his age, it should be remembered that both Pele and Ronaldo won the World Cup with Brazil while 17 years of age and just because Adu has the build of a man ten years his senior it shouldn?t automatically mean the former Ghanain native is the subject of a most elaborate age fraud. Whether he ever lives up to the ridiculous hype that has surrounded him for the last few years and earned him a $1million sponsorship deal with Nike is another question but if he does continue his promising growth in the game and get his dream move to Europe you can be sure the question of Freddy?s age will once again rear it?s head.
The ultimate responsibility for cracking down on age cheating at all levels must come initially from FIFA and then be enforced by the national associations but with the very core of the problem running parallel with the scourge of poverty throughout Africa and the resulting corruption of the game throughout that continent it seems that those in the developed world will have to simply put their faith in the documents provided by these players when they sign them and then suffer the consequences if they arise. FIFA?s eyes seem to be elsewhere at the minute and it may take a high profile case with a G14 club before this issue gets properly tackled.
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October 19th, 2005 at 7:34 pm
Outside of Roger Milla (where the fact that nobody is sure exactly how old he is only added to the legend), I first heard of this phenomena shortly after Ibrahima Bakayoko left Everton in 1999. At the time ?4,500,000 signing Bakayoko had claimed to be in his early twenties, but the French-born former coach of the Ivory Coast Under-21s suggested that he must be ?at least 30? as he had played international football at Under-21 level a decade before.
At the time I felt quite smug about this, the manner in which Everton were run back them showed ineptitude from top-to-bottom, and I thought this was a side-effect of that. Clearly the problem runs much deeper, and with more African footballers playing for the biggest clubs across Europe it seems only a matter of time before Liverpool are caught out (or have they been already with Titi Camara?).
As for Freddy Adu, the main reason I want somebody to prove him to be older than claimed, is that, as seems likely, if he is selected for the US next summer, he will surpass Norman Whiteside?s record as the youngest player to have played at a World Cup! I?ve grown quite attached to that Northern Ireland record
October 20th, 2005 at 6:22 pm
I don’t know whether Titi Camara was older than he claimed or just rubbish but Spurs had him on trial the year before Liverpool signed him and decided he wasn’t worth the free transfer. Obviously West Ham still found value in him after Liverpool had cut their losses but I think that says more about Harry Redknapp’s transfer policy (’Mad’ Marco Boogers?) than an age scam.
I’ve seen Freddy Adu play and while he’s great in front of the cameras doing ball tricks I just haven’t seen the same level of performance on the pitch during a competitive game and that’s in the more relaxed environment of the MLS. Maybe I’m wrong but it wouldn’t be the first time a certain sportswear company has used their financial might to force a national side to play one of their big sponsored players. I would mention the 1998 World Cup Final and a certain toothy South American but I haven’t got my legal advisor sitting beside me tonight to confirm my allegations are printable.
November 1st, 2005 at 2:15 pm
As little as five years ago age cheating was rife in African soccer. Can’t speak for other Countries but Nigeria is trying to clean up its act. A lot of players were disqualified from repping the Country at the under 21 Champions in Holland. We have learnt the hard way that we cannot make any headway with age-cheats and we are trying to clamp-down. However, in a Country were its easier to get a fake passport than to get wet in a swimming pool there is only so much we can do. European Clubs will have to take time to investigate some of the players they are getting and make hard choices on whether they want to buy African players at all. Feyenord was interested in a young Nigerian, Adeleye who was a star in the under 21 Championships in Holland, they inisited on a bone test to determine if he was really 16 and he refused. He was eventually signed by Sparta Rotterdam much to their charign. Adeleyes crime is that he is a big lad, I don’t know how old he is but he swears he is 16, Feyenord weren’t willing to take a chance Sparta was; only time will tell who is right. My guess is that no matter what he will give Sparta 5 good years and to be honest that is all they want.
On Kanu, it is obvious he is not 40. Some people claimed Okocha was in his late 30’s as long as 5 years ago, if thats the case i’ll have some of what he is eating because he went to the African Championships in 2004 and dominated as a supposedly 45year old. I totally agree that these rumours are embarassing but frankly the only proof the players have are their passports, if thats not good enough then its up to the clubs as employers to move on and sign other players…simple as that.
November 2nd, 2005 at 7:31 am
If the person who wrote this piece had done their research properly they would have realised the information about Martins’ age at the NFA site is completely wrong, discredited, and not even worth a mention. The wrong infromation was either deliberately done by a disgruntled employee or just plain ineptness on the part of the NFA. The NFA has come out to discredit it and apologise to Martins and all the other players with wrong data on the site. The contractor who created the website was later arrested and detained in Nigeria because he refused to provide the password to access the site and correct the wrong information until he was paid many months of salary owed to him!
This was some of the information displayed on that sorry site.
NAME: VINCENT ENYEAMA
DATE OF BIRTH: 29/09/82
POSITION: GOAL KEEPER
NIGERIA DEBUT: NIG VS KENYA. 04/09/82
He made his debut before he was born??
————————————————
NAME: ODEMWINGIE OSAZE
DATE OF BIRTH: 15/07/81
POSITION: MIDFIELDER
DEBUT: WORLDCUP
This man has never been to the world cup!
————————————————
NAME: OBAFEMI MARTINS
DATE OF BIRTH: 01/05/78
POSITION: FORWARD
NIGERIA DEBUT: NIG VS IRELAND
NAME: GARBA LAWAL
DATE OF BIRTH: 01/05/78
POSITION: DEFENDER
NIGERIA DEBUT: NIG VS ZAMB. 13/01/01
Two SE players with the very SAME date of birth??
BTW, Garbal Lawal was actually born in 1974 (as his passport says). So if this information is correct, does that mean the deliberately inflated his age??
————————————————
NAME: SEYI OLOFINJANA
DATE OF BIRTH: 15/11/1982
POSITION: MIDFIELDER
NIGERIA DEBUT: NIG VS MALAWI 12/6/80
Another player making his debut before he was born!
——————————————————-
You can see from the information above that the NFA site is completely discredited and not even worth a mention as regards to Martins? age.
Regarding general age cheating from Africa. This is caused by desperation and poverty in Africa. Some reduce their age so they could get into youth teams and gain recognition. Others are influenced by unscrupulous and fraudulent football agents who advice them to reduce their age by so much that it looks ridicules sometimes. Some of the players claiming to be 16 look at least 25! So it seems like a mixture of ignorance and stupidity on the part of the uneducated players and pure greed on the part of the agents in making these kind of ridiculous age adjustments.
It is a scourge that we are now battling hard in Nigeria. Of recent I think the unscrupulous and greedy football AGENTS are not helping matters. They find out how they system works in Europe (and the loopholes) then advice their clients to reduce their ages so as to get lucrative contracts in which the agent makes a massive cut from.
People can acquire passports and false documentation easily so it is not easy on the African FAs too to combat it. For example the Nigerian FA would have to go by the documentation they are presented with, but they check the documents against past records for the player i.e. in clubs or other youth teams. If there are any inconsistencies regarding his age, the player is dropped from the youth team. Carrying out an in-depth investigation on every potential international player would not be feasible because it would be extremely expensive and time consuming, and if you do it for one player you?ll have to do it for all. Nigeria and other poor African countries cannot afford that kind of expense as many of the players may not even make the final cut to play internationally for the country.
As for international football agents collaborating with players to adjust their age to get lucrative contracts abroad there is little our local FAs can do about that.
What I would welcome is new, cheap and non-intrusive technology that can be used to determine the age of players. If such was to be developed then even poor African nations can afford to buy it and screen players before youth competitions. European clubs could use it to screen players as part of the medical before offering a contract. If such a device was to become formally accepted and mandatory in age testing, the problem would disappear very quickly.
November 2nd, 2005 at 11:04 am
The reason I included the bit about Martins and the NFA website was that even though the details on it were later discredited, the fact remains that the official website of the Nigerian Football Association was the body muddying the waters regarding the authenticity of some of their own players’ ages. This wasn’t an independent fansite which had caused this controversy but supposedly the worldwide face of the very organisation who are supposed to uphold the laws of the game on all matters and if they didn’t know the correct details then it understandably could cause concern amongst the clubs who pay the salaries of the players in question.
There is no proof that any of these players in question have changed their ages but I still find it sad for the players involved who have to play their careers under a shadow of whispers about their honesty with no further way to prove, once and for all, their real age. Another situation where the vast amounts of money in the world game has led to unscrupulous characters bringing their corrupt ways into football but the game can’t counter them due to lack of investment in the poorer of our football associations.
November 30th, 2005 at 3:09 pm
how ild is okocha
August 15th, 2006 at 1:50 pm
birth age or soccer age
August 15th, 2006 at 5:27 pm
LMAO @ #4, 6+7
August 28th, 2006 at 9:42 am
I love the toon!