The Curious Case of Joseph Minala
If you haven't heard the name already, let me introduce you to Joseph Minala. Minala is a Seventeen (17) year old Cameroonian footballer who plays for Lazio's youth team. Lazio being a top Italian football team, situated in the capital Rome. Followers of football will remember that Lazio at one point having even played in the European Champions League.
Mr Minala has captured the imaginations of sports journalists and the general public alike after it emerged that a Senegalese sports website recently ran a story that Lazio's up and coming midfield ace was actually aged 41 and going 42 come August 2014.
According to them, Minala confessed his true age claiming the only reason he lied about his age was so that he could send money to his impoverished family back home in Cameroon. The internet has been awash with pictures of Minala while more than thirty minutes was dedicated to Minala on Supersport's African football talk show. They beamed a full-screen picture of Minala and asked viewers to guess the age. Suffice to say none of the guesses where anywhere near 17.
One of the reasons this story has refused to quickly ebb-out into oblivion is the fact that taken on face-value (no pun intended) Minala's face does look considerably older than that of a 17 year old as the pictures below will show. .
His club Lazio have gone on the offensive, threatening to sue the Senegalese newspaper and insisting that the reason Minala looks at least 40 when he is actually 17 is because he had a rough upbringing. His agent has even gone further to give more details of the hardships that Minala had to endure, which are cruelly etched into his face.
Too many this has simply re-opened the debate regarding age cheating in sports and in this particular instant football. I know footballers, friends even who had to tweak their birth documents so that they could drop a few years. It is a well known fact that European clubs are more likely to sign you if you are younger. As such many footballers resort to stalling their years till that big money move is made.
The pictures of Minala, which I must say do not help his cause much have been circulated on the internet with some bloggers commenting that he actually looks older than 41.
Unfortunately, Africa has had more than its fair share of cheats. Only a few years ago, Kenya had to send away more than half of its youth team following revelations that most of the players were over age. Age cheating scandals have not spared even well established footballing nations like Nigeria .Africa is not the sole repository of age cheats as evidenced by cheating revelations even on other continents. In 2003 for example, the Brazil under 20 National team that won the Under 20 World Cup had an over-age player Carlos Alberto playing in midfield. One can only wonder who else fielded over age players. Luckily for them, it appears they had gentler visages compared to Minala.
Football authorities have tried to find a solution by undertaking MRI scans to determine the age of players. While this can be done for FIFA organised competitions, I am not sure whether National Associations are able to do the same. Suffice to say the urge to win can be and often times is too strong that issues of age limitations are normally not given due consideration by many national associations.
Back to Minala; Lazio have stressed that all his papers are genuine and in place and they have no cause to doubt their (the papers) authenticity. They have not indicated whether Minala underwent an age verification scan although being a big European club, one expects that he did. His agent has weighed in on the debate explaining that Minala still bears the marks of the hardships he underwent as a young boy. He spent time in an orphanage and generally had a rough childhood.
For all we know Minala could be a 17 year old footballer, who unfortunately looks older than he actually is, and I doubt whether he is the first one to ever do that. In fact am aware that there is a medical condition that makes you look considerably older than you actually are.If this is the case, and I have not seen any evidence to the contrary, then people should just let the young man go ahead with playing his football. Surely these are not the type of headlines has has been hoping to be making.
Mr Minala has captured the imaginations of sports journalists and the general public alike after it emerged that a Senegalese sports website recently ran a story that Lazio's up and coming midfield ace was actually aged 41 and going 42 come August 2014.
According to them, Minala confessed his true age claiming the only reason he lied about his age was so that he could send money to his impoverished family back home in Cameroon. The internet has been awash with pictures of Minala while more than thirty minutes was dedicated to Minala on Supersport's African football talk show. They beamed a full-screen picture of Minala and asked viewers to guess the age. Suffice to say none of the guesses where anywhere near 17.
One of the reasons this story has refused to quickly ebb-out into oblivion is the fact that taken on face-value (no pun intended) Minala's face does look considerably older than that of a 17 year old as the pictures below will show. .
His club Lazio have gone on the offensive, threatening to sue the Senegalese newspaper and insisting that the reason Minala looks at least 40 when he is actually 17 is because he had a rough upbringing. His agent has even gone further to give more details of the hardships that Minala had to endure, which are cruelly etched into his face.
Too many this has simply re-opened the debate regarding age cheating in sports and in this particular instant football. I know footballers, friends even who had to tweak their birth documents so that they could drop a few years. It is a well known fact that European clubs are more likely to sign you if you are younger. As such many footballers resort to stalling their years till that big money move is made.
The pictures of Minala, which I must say do not help his cause much have been circulated on the internet with some bloggers commenting that he actually looks older than 41.
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| Joseph Minala |
Unfortunately, Africa has had more than its fair share of cheats. Only a few years ago, Kenya had to send away more than half of its youth team following revelations that most of the players were over age. Age cheating scandals have not spared even well established footballing nations like Nigeria .Africa is not the sole repository of age cheats as evidenced by cheating revelations even on other continents. In 2003 for example, the Brazil under 20 National team that won the Under 20 World Cup had an over-age player Carlos Alberto playing in midfield. One can only wonder who else fielded over age players. Luckily for them, it appears they had gentler visages compared to Minala.
Football authorities have tried to find a solution by undertaking MRI scans to determine the age of players. While this can be done for FIFA organised competitions, I am not sure whether National Associations are able to do the same. Suffice to say the urge to win can be and often times is too strong that issues of age limitations are normally not given due consideration by many national associations.
Back to Minala; Lazio have stressed that all his papers are genuine and in place and they have no cause to doubt their (the papers) authenticity. They have not indicated whether Minala underwent an age verification scan although being a big European club, one expects that he did. His agent has weighed in on the debate explaining that Minala still bears the marks of the hardships he underwent as a young boy. He spent time in an orphanage and generally had a rough childhood.
For all we know Minala could be a 17 year old footballer, who unfortunately looks older than he actually is, and I doubt whether he is the first one to ever do that. In fact am aware that there is a medical condition that makes you look considerably older than you actually are.If this is the case, and I have not seen any evidence to the contrary, then people should just let the young man go ahead with playing his football. Surely these are not the type of headlines has has been hoping to be making.
Keith,
ReplyDeleteInteresting story this one is... Unless he has a medical condition, this boy is way over 40. If he has a medical condition, then Lazio must be more responsible and protect the boy a little bit more as this story may ruin his career before it even starts.
Unless proven otherwise, I will maintain that he cannot be 17. It is not even a realistic age to give oneself based on his appearance. Isn't there some carbon dating machine that can detect the age of someone, though I think it has a cap at 17 years old. So why can't they use that.
ReplyDeleteI have not seen the "17" year old in action, so even if he looks older than 40 yet plays like a 17 year old, then I will take it he is 17 or there about.I guess that is why the club signed him. Football is very involving physically and I doubt if at 40 he would continue being in the youthful form for a long time. Time will tell, that is if no other evidence clears the doubt.
ReplyDelete