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African footballers and their "ages"........


Walter Bishop

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Walter Bishop

following on from the Kingston signing for Blackpool thread i noticed a few were sarcastically commenting on Kingston being 30. Given that there is a history of rumours out there about certain players and their ages like Kingston and Essien, are there any others you look at an think no way is he only .., the one that always sticks out for me is Drogba, i reckon he is around 36.

 

 

players ages called into question......

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/scotland/8651893.stm

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Wasn't there a big debate about Obafeme Martins age? He's knocked about 4 years off it.

 

I think it's 6 years at least, he's down as 26 and he's well into his 30s now.

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following on from the Kingston signing for Blackpool thread i noticed a few were sarcastically commenting on Kingston being 30. Given that there is a history of rumours out there about certain players and their ages like Kingston and Essien, are there any others you look at an think no way is he only .., the one that always sticks out for me is Drogba, i reckon he is around 36.

 

 

players ages called into question......

http://news.bbc.co.u...and/8651893.stm

 

Really? Considering his performance last season I think he may be the only one lying to make himself seem older.

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I was told of a story by someone working at Chelsea that Mikel is actually nearer 30 rather than the 23 registered

 

Read somewhere that before a recent African youth tourney they introduced wrist scanners to stamp it out. 2 countries changed practically the whole team as a result of this!

 

Made me think, in the cases of Yakubu & Martins, may explain why they are now struggling. I mean, you'd expect players late 20s to still be performig, but if they are really in the 30s will explain why they are now struggling!

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portobellojambo1

I was told of a story by someone working at Chelsea that Mikel is actually nearer 30 rather than the 23 registered

 

Read somewhere that before a recent African youth tourney they introduced wrist scanners to stamp it out. 2 countries changed practically the whole team as a result of this!

 

Made me think, in the cases of Yakubu & Martins, may explain why they are now struggling. I mean, you'd expect players late 20s to still be performig, but if they are really in the 30s will explain why they are now struggling!

 

While I don't doubt for a second that the lack of paperwork (e.g. birth certificates) in Africa means many are unaware of their age, and in present day football terms some players can use that to their advantage I'm not sure what difference wrist scanners would make. Surely the playing squads are announced pre tournament, and all their dates of birth presented to the organisers. Can wrist scanners tell what age people are, or would any changes not be down to question marks over the paperwork submitted up front.

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While I don't doubt for a second that the lack of paperwork (e.g. birth certificates) in Africa means many are unaware of their age, and in present day football terms some players can use that to their advantage I'm not sure what difference wrist scanners would make. Surely the playing squads are announced pre tournament, and all their dates of birth presented to the organisers. Can wrist scanners tell what age people are, or would any changes not be down to question marks over the paperwork submitted up front.

 

I believe the wrist scanners can detect the age of bones, hence why they were introduced. As soon as they were, an awful lot of squads changed.

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Walter Bishop

You just have to look at the African`s playing in the premiership and the majority have had "injury" problems the past year or so - Drogba, Essien, Yakubu, K.Toure, etc etc could be down to age given the recovery time would be longer.

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I believe the wrist scanners can detect the age of bones, hence why they were introduced. As soon as they were, an awful lot of squads changed.

 

They'll tell you whether someone has reached adult bone age, but won't tell you whether someone is 19 or 24.

 

Common sense dictates that Larry Kingston is around 36 years old.

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They'll tell you whether someone has reached adult bone age, but won't tell you whether someone is 19 or 24.

 

Common sense dictates that Larry Kingston is around 36 years old.

 

They were used for u-17 tourneys IIRC. Whats the age for an adult for the scanner?

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You just have to look at the African`s playing in the premiership and the majority have had "injury" problems the past year or so - Drogba, Essien, Yakubu, K.Toure, etc etc could be down to age given the recovery time would be longer.

 

Then again it could be down to these guys playing so much football in the time. They've had both a World Cup and an Africans Nations to go along with their club football this year.

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How old is Davie-O?

 

according to the comments in this top 10 list of uganda age cheats

 

i thought you would include David Obua in this list but am disappointed you did not!

He claims to be 26 yet the people he was with in the same class at St. Joseph's Nagalama are 32 now!

 

and an interview thingy here has him playing for some team in 95

 

Vianney: Tell them?even David Obua claims to be 25 but he played for Police in the Super League in 1995.

Ssonko: Easy guys?don?t expose our players coz some football scouts may read this and lose interest in Ugandan footballers.

 

There is also an interview with some ugandan footballer on the website http://www.fufa.co.ug/ (no idea how official it is) who says....

 

 

FW: Anything else??

 

TM: To the players, get enough time to relax, and keep morals in the formative age, do lie about your ages and know that football is played over a short period of your life. You are growing old every second. To Ugandans, help footballers by providing facilities, education, guidance, and connections to European clubs People who do not wish others well and those with intrigue should change and if you have problems, turn to God. He answers all problems in and outside football. I have done it and I am seeing it

 

So who knows?

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