tbaba1234:


In terms of height, not many grow after 18. They can become more muscular or fatter but no change in height.

In my secondary school, only 2 people obviously grew taller after we graduated from a class of almost 100.

The reality in my own school was different.

thank GOD wey no allow this jessy weigh him down

bros ten players no goalkeeper na monkey post them dey play?

shugaboy6102:
Rude

no vex but found is awkward that you see picture and video evidence and still argue about it, even looking at the jersey you should be able to say what year Nigeria use that jersey

whether 40 or 19 I'm glad we have a striker that can find the net and is in form, the pressure has gotten to ighalo him self don dey score
iheanacho success iwobi are not the problem
the problem is those players who failed MRI test in U17 that played U20 under manu and the home based guys that will and Some foreign based guys who didn't go through any scan that will make the U23 team and probably even bench the real youngsters because they av more experience.

TheGoodJoe:


Look at the pictures in the front page. Look at the height difference between Iheanacho an his Super Eagles Coach, Salisu Yusuf and tell me you grew that much after eighteen.

He might have been 15-16 there.

3 years is enough for rapid growth.

At 15, I was very small too, but I'm quite really bigger now at 23.


Also I'm considering the fact that he might have been malnourished (no offense) back then, which might have hampered his growth. And people also have different growing patterns too.

Anyways even if he messed with his age, it should still be close enough.


All these are maybe though...... Even though I believe the guy who said he was a teammate.

zicky:
if I get you, you are saying the young man is between 15-22, and the guy said he's 19yrs so its still within the range

Yes. If he says he is 19 now, then he must had been 13 or near 14, near 14 if his birth month is in late months...Sept, Oct, Nov and Dec. My birth month is in Dec....so I usually turn a yr older late. What does this mean, it means that he may be turning 20yrs very soon because his month of birth is later in the calendar.

Pyno30:
This pix was taken back in 1992

u jst told us ur year of birth . the pic was taken back in 1982.LMAO

Elxandre:

He might have been 15-16 there.

3 years is enough for rapid growth.

At 15, I was very small too, but I'm quite really bigger now at 23.


Also I'm considering the fact that he might have been malnourished (no offense) back then, which might have hampered his growth. And people also have different growing patterns too.

Anyways even if he messed with his age, it should still be close enough.


All these are maybe though...... Even though I believe the guy who said he was a teammate.

If you believe the guy that said he was a team mate, then you must believe Iheanacho was 18 in the first picture. Take another look at that picture. Don't tell me you believe that's a picture of an 18-YEAR OLD !

If he was 18 in that picture, then he must have had remarkably UNNATURAL growth spurts, which dosent occur after age 21.

Do you think they would be foolish to lie about a public event?

Forzap:
How are u sure dat pic was taken in 2010

kindredspirit:


If you believe the guy that said he was a team mate, then you must believe Iheanacho was 18 in the first picture. Take another look at that picture. Don't tell me you believe that's a picture of an 18-YEAR OLD !

If he was 18 in that picture, then he must have had remarkably UNNATURAL growth spurts, which dosent occur after age 21.

From under 5 feet to about 5 11 .... very UNNATURAL! !!

Truth be told. From my observation this pix cannot be in 2010, the man standing next to him is putting on a 1978 coat sorry suit. Just look at the pic graphics, hell no this cannot be in 2010.

zicky:
Iheanacho the next star to come out from Nigeria after jayjay and Kanu

Define Star? Is Finidi George a Star ? What about Mikel Obi?

The reason why Nigeria has remained undeveloped is because of people who are here saying Iheanacho is above 19 even when evidence is clearly shown...

The denials are the ones that keep shouting APC or PDP.... Defending their evils as good even when evidence shows they are evil.

Nigerians, I hail some of una

Temptee101:
Truth be told. From my observation this pix cannot be in 2010, the man standing next to him is putting on a 1978 coat sorry suit. Just look at the pic graphics, hell no this cannot be in 2010.

many men in 2016 still rock 1978 coats, talk less 2010....so using the coat to judge the picture, is not valid.

People used different cameras in 2010, I'm sure you could find this picture quality back then.

Anyway, unless you have more solid proof than presented (you know, like a birth ceftificate), this will have to do

Pyno30:
This pix was taken back in 1992

who u be

tbaba1234:


The height difference shows that he can't be 16-17...

Did you do biology in secondary school? If you did, you wouldn't be saying this.

ify84:
The reason why Nigeria has remained undeveloped is because of people who are here saying Iheanacho is above 19 even when evidence is clearly shown...

The denials are the ones that keep shouting APC or PDP.... Defending their evils as good even when evidence shows they are evil.

Nigerians, I hail some of una

Sorry I had to cut in, not supporting any side though but what evidence are you talking about? you speak like there's an age number inscribed on his fore head in the first picture of 2010. I have seen a lot of teenage Nigerian boys. that boy could naturally be anything between 10 years and 17 years in that picture, forget the smooth face. he could be as low as 10 and as high as 17. though it's more likely to be 10 or 11 if he's born with a silver spoon and likely to be towards 16 or 17 if he was born into poverty. no one has got any EVIDENCE so let's leave any claim of evidence and just take his age as 19 as he claims.

Pyno30:
This pix was taken back in 1992

exactly my tot too. that picture can't be 2010 maybe not as far back as d 90s but definitely not 2010, shld be 2001 or 02

less than 1% of boys grow taller after age 20, infact after age 19, most boys stop growing in height, for girls , by age 16-17.

He cant be older than 14 in this picture.

shala01:

Teenage boys stop growing at 21. 16-20 is the year of rapid growth

Olodo year of rapid growth is 15 to 18. No significant growth after 18

Feature: How Age Fraud Has Affected Nigeria’s Super Eagles


Oh Yes! I am a football fanatic. Just last weekend while watching the beautiful football games played in the English Premier League, a thought crossed my mind during the match between Manchester City and Crystal Palace which was played on January 16.

Nigerian footballers came to my mind and I ask myself – how long will age cheat kill our football? when are players going to stop lying about their real age – which is an obvious deterrent to personal and nationwide growth.

Just recently a debate surrounding age fraud has resurfaced, following a report by Switzerland-based football observatory team on January 12.

The report, however, traced the usual under performance by many African senior teams to massive cheating carried out at their youth levels.


According to the report, countries like Nigeria, Ghana and Cameroon are yet to reach the full potential in their respective senior teams as a result of wrong foundations set with the youth teams.

In this regards, I decided to take a holistic approach in looking at how age cheating (a common act in African football) has affected the growth of the game in the most populous black nation – Nigeria.

Manchester City youngster Kelechi Iheanacho had just provided the assist to Sergio Aguero for his first goal of the game (the Argentine went ahead to get a brace).

However a question from a colleague rattled my mind – Don’t you think Iheanacho, dubbed to be youngest player in Manchester City strike force could be older than Aguero?

I immediately rose to the defence of the young lad, rubbishing the comment knowing fully well Iheanacho is 19. However after a careful perusal on the growth of our youngsters back home, I said to myself “there may be a little sense in the question he just asked”. I expect you to ask me why. However, the reason isn’t far-fetched. Let us take a trip down memory lane.


English coach Harry Redknapp had joked about Nwankwo Kanu’s official age in 2010 back at Portsmouth. According to him, Kanu was 49 at that time but he is still a king.


Obafemi Martins is not 25 but 32. Jay-Jay Okocha is 10 years older than his “official” age throughout his career and Taribo West, whose playing career ended some years ago, is in his late fifties. Nigerians said online with mixed feelings, these cannot be based on fact – who knows, the speculations may be true or false.

However, suspicions about the true age of some Nigerian footballers dated as far back as 20 years when world football governing body FIFA banned Nigeria from all international fixtures for two years after finding that the birth dates of three of their players in the 1988 Olympics were different from the ones used by the same players in previous tournaments.

Despite believes that age fraud in the country was set to be a thing of the past with this punishment from FIFA, it became more prominent. This stirred a move again from FIFA to introduce the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans aimed at checking the ages of players at the 2009 Under-17 World Cup.

Alarmed at this development, Nigeria subsequently dropped 15 players from their squad to the tournament in which they were going to host.

However, a player in the green-white-green colours of the country still went ahead to steal the show at the competition despite a slow start.

He was popularly referred to as “Little Messi”, real name Stanley Okoro. But where is he today? Last I heard of him, he was on loan to Bulgarian side, Cherno More from parent club Almeria.


Two years before, a certain Chrisantus Macauley had just picked up the Golden boot at the 2007 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Korea after finishing top scorer with seven goals, and was given the Adidas Silver Ball.

Today, the manager of AEK and a Chelsea legend Gustavo Poyet where Macauley plies his trade doesn’t have him in his first team plans and the Nigerian forward will probably be released this January.


Although the MRI has done a good job in detecting age fraud in football, the question if the job has been very thorough has been left unanswered.

This draw my attention to a comment made by the captain of Uruguay U-17 side in 2013 FIFA U-17 World Cup, Fabrizio Buschiazzo in a tournament which Nigeria lost several key players to alleged age cheat weeks into the competition.

He said after his team lost 2-0 to Nigeria U-17 who eventually went ahead to win the trophy. “I am very angry to think that Nigeria are not 17. We are an under-17 team and are better than any other under-17s but not against 35 and 40-year-olds which is how the Nigerians appeared to be to me.”

Two years after, apparently stunned by the artistry of defending champions, Golden Eaglets in Chile, former Mexico U-17 coach, Raul Gutierrez accused the Nigerian wonder-kids of doing things that no real U-17 player could do with the ball.

“Beyond their physical development, decisions made by many of players of this Nigeria team are not of an U-17 player,’ the coach told mediotiempo.com.

According to former Nigeria international Jonathan Akpoborie, 45, age fraud is “rampant in African football and it is the biggest problem the game faces over here.”

He told BBC Sport in 2014: “It has been a big problem and still is. Some of them played at the Under-17 level and then a few years later retire because they can’t run any more.

“Look at Spain’s national team as an example of how it should be done. The likes of Xavi and Andres Iniesta came through the youth teams. You can track their career all the way through.

“When you look at the African players playing for the Under-17s, maybe one or two years later they have retired because they can’t produce what they produced at Under-17 level because they are so old. The wrong players are being given the platform.”


However, the reasons for players pretending to be younger than they are, could be traced to pressure for success, individual ambition and ease in falsifying your age as factors for it.

A blogger said some years back: “A friend of mine who once played in the Nigerian league told me his real age was 34 but his football age was 21.

“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 7,000-10,000 naira instead of the official price of about 5,500 for an international passport and within hours you have completed the whole process.

“A new passport, a new person – and if you are a footballer, a younger one.”

With all these being said, it’s quite clear that players lying about their ages in world football is a problem the authorities have been struggling to get a hold of for a long time.

Nigeria has by far the worst reputation when it comes to age fraud in football and this has overtime hindered the growth of the game as our darling Super Eagles have continued to struggle at the big stage.

“I know of a player who represented us at the u-17 level but his twin recently clocked 30. Another represented us at the youth level but had wife and children back home,” former super eagles coach, Adegboye Onigbinde told Naij.com sports.


In the real sense, lying about one’s age may be a common practice that implies a competitive advantage in youth categories. But in the long term, this strategy is counterproductive as it does not provide ideal conditions for the full development of talent. This is one of the reasons for which the real potential of Nigeria squads in recent times remains untapped.

According to Jonathan Akpoborie, the introduction of MRI scanning has been a success but has it been a huge success, maybe not!

He said: “The government in Lagos, Nigeria, has put a new programme in place where every child who attends school is given a number and this number stays with them.

“Without that number you can’t play in the junior leagues. Someone like me, who is an agent, can only take a player who has that number. I just hope the whole federation will adopt that system.

“Age fraud is a complex problem and without everyone uniting together against it, we won’t be able to get rid of it.”

So I said to myself, if the Government can get their acts together by registering daily births in a central database system, we can take it from there and guide against age cheats and frauds from happening in the future generation.



https://www.naij.com/703372-age-fraud-immensely-affected-nigerias-super-eagles-photos.html

Go call police na. You guys should leave the young man alone to score his goals in peace.
If you don't believe he's 19, go to the tribunal.

martineverest:
nacho first pics looks like a 16-17 year of writhing and languishing in poverty...... He should be 23 by now

ubecharles:
Olodo year of rapid growth is 15 to 18. No significant growth after 18

Oversabi no go kill you. There is significant growth. Maybe the rate differes for individuals but the growth that can be observed.

pinkyliceous:
Do you think they would be foolish to lie about a public event?

Even d govt do lie in a public event,so wat are u talkin abt?dis is Nigeria anytin can happen,m not disputin d fact dat he might be 19 tho...jst wana be sure

Pyno30:
This pix was taken back in 1992

so that's what nigerian jersey look like in 1992?

Why do we have so many mumus in naija nah

ribbit:
so that's what nigerian jersey look like in 1992?

Why do we have so many mumus in naija nah

Ask Buhari

ugohemma:

who u be

Lolz. I be ur lover

Vikky014:
u jst told us ur year of birth . the pic was taken back in 1982.LMAO

Hahahahahahahahahahaha. U be case.

zicky:
Ogar park well, na with your Nokia torchlight phone.

na d torchlite of d phone mak d pix clear.

He's a young chap and it's proven. But the children of will always oppose the truth.