I was shocked to hear that Julius Aghahowa is twenty four years during his transfer from Dynamo Kiev to Wigan Football club of England. You and I know that it is definitely not true. In fact I was in Bayero University in 1999 during the Junior World Cup hosted in Nigeria when the Nigerian team came to play in Kano after they came second in their group in the first round stage played in Lagos. The team trained at the Old site campus and I went to watch them. I was twenty three years old then and all of them were my senior. Obafemi Martins claimed to be twenty two when he left Inter Milan for Newcastle. He almost had a problem during the transfer as Celestine Babayaro had earlier told the coach that he played with Martins when he was in Nigeria. It was an easy calculation. If Martins played with Babayaro then he couldn’t possibly be twenty. But somehow that controversy was resolved. When they say ‘football age’ in Nigeria, you know what that means.

It is not just Julius or Martins. It is the entire Nigerian national team, the national league, and football in Nigeria and Africa. A friend of mine who once played in the Nigerian league with Jigawa Stars told me his real age was thirty four two years ago but his football age was twenty one. He is still actively playing. He should be thirty six now and his football age twenty three. Everyone simply keeps a blind eye at such outrageous claims by footballers and other sportsmen. It is a taboo to talk about it yet everyone knows that they are lying. Even the press manage to ignore it.

Clement Westerhof, former Nigerian national team coach who is managing a football academy in Ilorin, Kwara State, complained of the age problems as he could not ascertain the ages of the footballers recruited at the academy. In football, age can be reduced drastically without qualms. It is easier as there are no records. You can walk into any immigration office in Nigeria today, forge documents at the nearby business centre, change your name, place of birth, date of birth, pay seven to ten thousand naira instead of the official price of about five thousand five hundred naira for international passport and within hours you have completed the whole process of getting an international passport. The next day all you need to do is to go to the immigration office and get your international passport.

Phillip Osundo is the known Nigerian footballer that was prosecuted for lying about his age in Belgium, but Osundo is not the only one lying about age. A sport journalist once said that the whole players that left the shore of Nigeria to play outside the country lied about their age. In recent time it has become an accepted norm in Nigerian football.

Why is nobody talking about it or doing anything about it? It has to do with the crass failure in all fabrics of Nigerian institutions. The sport institutions have failed completely to develop grassroots football in primary and secondary schools where at least one can be sure of getting young teenage players. The Nigerian league is full of elderly players who reduced from eight to ten years or more from their real age. Luis Figo the Portuguese international and Inter Milan player played in the Youth Championship tagged Saudi’89. While Luis Figo is still playing active football most of our players who played in that tournament in 1989 have retired and become grandpas. This overage syndrome has affected our football over the years as players who are past their prime are used in competitive tournaments and they end up disappointing the nation.

We need to learn one or two things from Arsene Wenger, the coach of Arsenal football club of England. Even though Arsenal would go without trophy this season, Wenger has proven that youthfulness is a great advantage in modern football. The place to start from would be as early as primary school where talents can be nurtured. Many people have suggested this idea and better ideas but you and I know that things don’t always work here. We need to go back to the grassroots to start working because if we continue to put up with lies it wouldn’t take us anywhere. You can cheat but those who do the right things and their home work win in the end, at least in football. When it comes to football cheating does not pay much.

Nigeria crash out of many international competition not because of lack of qualitative talented young players, but because the process of selection of these players has been so corrupted that one hears of money sharing hands before players are selected, or some senior government official or politician influencing selections of players. In a system where corruption is not checked and culprits punished, it is usually very difficult to get anything done rightly. There was a time when the brothers of our footballers were selected to represent Nigeria in a tournament. That same team has the brothers of Nwankwo Kanu, Sunday Oliseh, Tijani Babangida and their friends, and none of them have made it big on the international stage today or in the national team. They had used the influence of their big brothers when the country’s football was controlled by a cabal of mafia footballers to gain admission into the junior national team.

As Nigeria prepares for 2010 World Cup in South Africa, the Super Eagles of Nigeria would be going to the tournament with many players who have lied about their age and reduced eight to ten years and more from their real age. The overage syndrome would definitely affect the Nigerian national team in 2010 in South Africa as they would be playing against very professional European and South American sides who would use youthfulness and experience of the few mature players to lift the most prestigious sport trophy on earth.

Robot  Villager

# 1 I was shocked to hear that Julius Aghahowa is twenty four years during his transfer from Dynamo K...Read the full article. Posted by Robot| 11.04.2007 14:50

Mikky jaga  Villager

# 2 While I condemn falsification of age and documents, I really do not see why we should choose to crucify our players who are doing well in their careers and proving to the world that Age has got nothing to do with it? Our record keeping in this country is suspect. We have no National Data base where information about our citizens are kept. Many Nigerians, myself inclusive, have to rely on information from their parents or relations, rather than on documentry evidence, to determine their dates of birth. Why crucify our players if they decide to be born on dates that will advance their careers. The true age of our President is up till now still being doubted in many places, even the invitation card of the daughter to his recent 70th birthday said this much. I had initially thought the writer was about to complain of falsification of age in age grade competitions. This may have been acceptable to the extent that an overaged and experienced player may have slight advantage over his younger opponents, but when we talk about the Super Eagles, age certainly has got nothing to do with it. Muda Lawal played well into his "old age" till many comentators started to refer to him as ageless Muda Lawal, yet, competition after competition, he proved to be a solid rock in Nigeria's midfield. "Aged" Okocha would still have been playing for Super Eagles by now if not for his voluntary retirement from the National team coupled with his dwindling commitment to the team. Roger Milla remained the tormentor in chief of the "youthful" Super Eagles well into his "old age". What then has age got to do with it? It is common knowledge that some Seventy years old men can defeat their thirty something years counterparts in the bedmatics game. My wife's father had two more children when he was past seventy where younger men would have retired long ago. He was planning to marry a younger wife when God mercifully called him home. Let the performance of our players at the senior level judge them not their birth certificates. Any player whose output start to diminish should be dropped even if he claims to be 16 years. Super Eagles will lose the 2010 World cup, not because of the age of our players, but because of the ineptitude of our football administrators. Please, the guy's name is Philip Osondu, not Osundo. Posted by Mikky jaga| 12.04.2007 03:24

adriano83  JJC

# 3 Age falsification is not a new thing even people who travel falsify age. our soccer players dont get noticed easily because they dont have God fathers early enough. it is in all sports not just soccer the only nigerians that dont falsify age are the likes of peter odemwingie victor anichebe because they where born or grew up abroad. if odemwingie falsified his age as most nigerian players do he would have gone to the world cup at 14 years cos that guys looks very young i find it hard to believ he is 26 in his lille jersey he still looks 17 or 16 nigerian standard. some players cant lie to much about their age such as romanus orjinta i remebered during the 2004 nations cup deji omotoyinbo gave a comment about orjinta who was then 22 officially that he has one somethign in his career at last but that he cant go to the 2010 world cup. the bronze according to omotoyinbo was a good retirement medal. i know some one who plays baseball he went to the 91 all africa games i was in primary schol then and he participated in coja 2003 yet he was just 21 in 2003. well age has a problem but we cant blame the players cos we dont have a database and also the economy is hard they need to play for a while to get to their promise land. dont criticize them i dont support their lying but lets get a national database Posted by adriano83| 12.04.2007 03:43

adriano83  JJC

# 4 Can u compare Martins and Odemwingie also can u comapre julius Agahahowa and odemwingie yet peter odemwingie is older than them both. i remeber edward ayanmki was 28 when he went to under 17 in 1995. imagine james obiora who played under 17 in 1995 is nowhere to be found. out of the u-17 1993 only 3 of them can be found oruma celestine and kanu. orumas built i am sure he was born in 1968 or so. kanu cos of his technique u cant mention his age. celestine is young though in his mid 30's. Azuburike oliseh was my in laws senior in festac my in law is 32 so sunday should be in his 40's imagine a lasu graduate as at 1988 hm he must be a genius. it goes on and on i write this tales not to blackmail but its quite funny to me. well i no blame dem if na me sef i g prolong my career to butter my bread Posted by adriano83| 12.04.2007 04:00

Godwin  Villager

# 5 Most Nigerian players lie about their age because It is done in Nigeria's "interest" and also personal "interest". The Press & the administrators are all accomplices in age falsification by Nigerian players so as to get a very competitive Youth & Junior sides. Many players use a standard deviation of + or - 5years. Julius Aghahowa has been claiming 17 years since Nigeria 99 U20 World cup hence his age of 24 years when he joined Wigan . Celestine babayaro never told his coach that he played with Martins in Nigeria because he left for Anderlecht in Belgium in 1994 when Martins was still in Primary school at Orile. Phillip Osondu was never prosecuted for age falsification in belgium, so please stop the rhetoric. You can know a players real age by checking the Primary & Secondary school records becaue at that time it is not yet fashionable to lie about age. Age can also be verified if the records at the NFA for a players first club is scrutinised. Osaze is a son of Bendel Insurance team doctor, so he is using "real" age unlike Yakubu and Aghahowa who the young Osaze looked up to in Benin in the early days only to become older than the duo now. Posted by Godwin| 14.04.2007 04:14