This age thing

This is in response to Aba Boy's post on David Moyes's comments, and is also down to the fact that some people have been trying to pin down Naija's failure at the last Nations Cup to the over-aged nature of our footballers. Hope I haven't gone on a tangent...

That age falsification existed not just amongst Nigerian footballers but in Nigerian society in general is true. That is still exists now is what is open to question simply because of the awareness about it now. I always point to a personal example, the footballer Chinedu Ogbuke. I've heard stories that the boy can't be younger than 27, and when I hear those stories I shake my head. Why is that? Chinedu has an elder brother, Henry, who is two years younger than I am. In between Henry and Chinedu, there are two siblings, who are not twins. I am 28 in a few months, so how is it that Chinedu is older than his brother and sisters?

Again, people always love to knock the Japan '93 Golden Eaglets that included the likes of Kanu as being age cheats. In doing that they forget that of the 288 players that played in that tournament 15 years ago now, less than 10 are still playing active football, and of the 6 who are still active: Kanu and Oruma (Nigeria), Buffon and Totti (Italy), Jankulovski and Sionko (Czech), 2 (Kanu and Oruma) are Nigerians. A few months ago it was 3, but Babayaro is no longer active. My point then is what is the probability that more of the age cheats went on to have successful and longer careers than the 'honest' folk, especially the Argies who cried foul all those years ago?

When France beat Naija in the final back in 2001, people complained about the Naija boys (for the record I think some of them embellished their ages), but seven years down the line, and the only players who have gone on to shine are Tevez and Mascherano from Argentina, and Torres and Iniesta from Spain. The entire Nigerian team has faded away, and we don't hear anything of Sinama Pongolle and Le Tallec anymore. But they had all the best training thrown at them.

We have already started hearing cries of wolf from people about the last set of Golden Eaglets, but people forget one very important fact: take the top three players from that tournament, Chrisantus, Kroos and Bojan. Both Kroos and Bojan already have a head start on Chrisantus in their footballing lives simply because of the kinds of clubs they are in, and not because Chrisantus is 'over aged'. All this over-age cry is just another way of avoiding the truth: we are poorly organised.