Essien to Moudrid

Written in 2010 after a scandal:

hey have finally come up with a foolproof way of determining real age. Ahead of last year's Under-17 World Cup in, as it happened, Nigeria, the governing body announced that players would be subjected to wrist scans using magnetic resonance imaging, and this would determine their true age.

That led some countries to undertake precautionary scans beforehand. The results were never announced, but Nigeria suddenly discarded 15 squad members, while Gambia omitted 11 of the 18 who had helped them to victory in the African Under-17 championship a few months earlier. Reports claim that retrospective analyses of the previous three Under-17 World Cups showed more than a third of all players were too old.

The full article is showing how much this practice has been overused in Nigeria.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/feb/21/nigerian-football-age-old-problem

Okocha may have been 10 years older than his official age.

Essien is Ghanian not Nigerian. Hate to generalize Africans like you c**ts are but it's Nigerian footballers who are renown age cheats.

Robben looks about ten years older than Essien does, same with Charlie Adam yet no one claims they're lying about their age.

Don't tell me it's because he's African either. People still think Lukaku is lying about his age despite being born in Belgium

Is Drogba an age cheat as well?

Gil it's not necessarily that they're lying though.

Some may do that but others may just have gotten a late birth certificate and not really know their actual age.

That's just a sad reality of many third world countries.

There's no cheating involved really.

are russians doing the opposite cause arshavin looks younger than me but he is supposed to be 31

Gil wrote:Essien is Ghanian not Nigerian. Hate to generalize Africans like you c**ts are but it's Nigerian footballers who are renown age cheats.

Robben looks about ten years older than Essien does, same with Charlie Adam yet no one claims they're lying about their age.

Don't tell me it's because he's African either. People still think Lukaku is lying about his age despite being born in Belgium

Is Drogba an age cheat as well?

It is not only Nigeria.

Here you have the 10 best Uganda age cheat by an Uganda newspaper http://observer.ug/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8152&Itemid=80

It is well known that in Africa a lot of players are doing this to get a longer career or to look better at a "younger" age in order to come in European clubs. It is very easy in some of these country with no serious registers of births.

Seeing how Essien was a beast so young and how his body has degraged over the last years, I think he is probably older than he is officially. I like the player a lot but I don't think he is under 30 one minute.

Le Samourai wrote:Gil it's not necessarily that they're lying though.

Some may do that but others may just have gotten a late birth certificate and not really know their actual age.

That's just a sad reality of many third world countries.

There's no cheating involved really.

On the article about Nigeria, it is pure cheating though as they can buy a passeport and a new name for little.

The ex chief of Ghana federation implied that Essien was an age cheat.

http://ghanasoccernet.mobi/ex-ghana-fa-boss-tamakloe-in-astonishing-essien-attack/

And goal.com made a report on age cheating in Ghana academies

http://www.goal.com/en/news/1717/editorial/2011/07/12/2571129/age-cheating-in-ghana-the-bane-of-football-academies-trying

vanDEEZ wrote:

buddytaller wrote:Why are you speculating Essien's age, were you there when he was born

um because there is an obvious gap in what people believe to be his age and his reported age...

you have to be at someone's birth to speculate on someones age? what are you the king of what can and cannot be discussed?

Calm down, I was only joking didn't u see the coffee man smiley. Age cheating in football is a debate that goes on everyday in Ghana, there isn't much proof of it's existence currently but it is widely speculated to exist.

The genesis of it was when Fifa introduced underage football competitions some 25 years ago, Ghanaians tended to be a lot smaller than players of other countries of the same age, it is speculated that the FA worked with government to get them fake birth certificates. Recently though there's been a clamp down on these activities, and cheating is discouraged at the highest levels of football administration.

The clamp down of age cheating coincided with the rise of senior national team. Ghana qualified for the World Cup for the first time in 2006, beating the likes of Czech Republic (who were ranked 2nd in the world at that time) and the USA to qualify from their group, only to be beaten by Brazil, despite playing some scintillating football.

That squad had Muntari, Essien, Gyan, Appiah and L. Kingston its star players, three of them are still regulars for the black stars after some 6 years. This would have been impossible some 15 or 16 years ago.

Feel free to speculate but Essien's age is probably correct.