Nwankwo Kanu is 42

Samich

...according to bloggers in Nigeria

interesting article on the ages of the nigerians. Looks quite suspect considering they were winning underage and then some players went on to play in lower leagues.

The scanning the wrists part is interesting, when they pulled 15 players from their squad.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/feb/21/nigerian-football-age-old-problem

Professional Griefer

And according to boards.ie Newcastle were after some North Korean.

Lumbo

A Nigerian 42?

TheRedDevil10

That article is two years old so he's 44 :P

Samich

TheRedDevil10 wrote: »

That article is two years old so he's 44 :P

Jaysus it is too :pac:

Schism

And Taribo West, whose playing career ended only two years ago, is in his late fifties.

:eek:

I find that very hard to believe.

Zebra3

I know a certain national association who had to do this with some youth players who have arrived from abroad, got citizenship and were on the verge of being picked for their adopted nation's underage sides.

(And yes, they were overage).

Heard Arsenal refused to offer a certain household name a new contract several years ago because he refused to undergo the same check.

mike65

Taribo West is 38.

Stanley Matthews was 50 when he quit! And they had to kick a heavy leather ball wearing doc martins back then.

Samich

The last line is the most interesting regarding the scanning to identify their real ages. Why pull them out if they were under age?

Also Kanu was prolific at underage yet was nowhere near the same in senior.

Would like to see what age Martins peak was :P

Samich

And on Martins, he was a first teamer at 17. Glenn Roeder at Newcastle said he thought he could be anywhere between 26-28 when in fact he was down as 21?

Lumbo

If you are good enough, you are young enough.

Seaneh

The Martins thing is stupid.
When he made his debut for Inter he was about 5'4 and very, very skinny.

When he left inter 4 years later he had grown a few inches and become a little tank.

There is no way anybody could change that much after the age of 20, that's a fact.

kitakyushu

In contrast Roger Milla was only 21 when he played in World Cup 90 (he was 13 for Spain 82).

Moneymaker

Expect to see Kanu alongside Oba Martins in the Nigerian Over 40s side so.

~Rebel~

I met a Nigerian chap years ago who claimed that Julius Aghahowa was their local police officer as a young fella before he moved into football. Said there was about a 6 or 7 year age difference between his public age and reality. Makes sense of his career too. Looked a great prospect at "20", got a little better, then got drastically worse.

Where To

Peter Ndlovu (who remembers him?) is playing at the minute in the South African Division One playoff for Thanda Royal Zulu.

Apparently he's only 39:eek:

Samich

kitakyushu wrote: »

In contrast Roger Milla was only 21 when he played in World Cup 90 (he was 13 for Spain 82).

What's the story with this guy?

kitakyushu

Samich wrote: »

What's the story with this guy?

I think his age was correct , but like with a lot of African players, there was rumours that he was actually even older than his quoted age (that being 38 at 90 , 42 at 94)

_blank_

Where To wrote: »

Peter Ndlovu (who remembers him?) is playing at the minute in the South African Division One playoff for Thanda Royal Zulu.

Apparently he's only 39:eek:

That would be correct.

He was fairly young while playing for Coventry back in the early days of the PL. 20 years ago remember.

The PL wasn't as high standard back then, and Ndlovu had explosive pace, so he was always going to look good against fatter, less fit lumbering defenders which were commonplace back then in the PL.

All of Africa is not the same, and Zimbabwe is on the other side of the continent to Nigeria.

Samich

Are you saying he was 21 at WC 90 or you saying that he played at WC 82 and he'd have only been 13 then?

He was 38 in 90, so old.

kitakyushu

Samich wrote: »

Are you saying he was 21 at WC 90 or you saying that he played at WC 82 and he'd have only been 13 then?

He was 38 in 90, so old.

Nah he wasn't 21. He was 38 in 1990.

_blank_

Samich wrote: »

Are you saying he was 21 at WC 90 or you saying that he played at WC 82 and he'd have only been 13 then?

He was 38 in 90, so old.

the person saying he was 21 in 1990 is taking the piss, clearly.

It was a "funny joke" at the time to exaggerate his age as being even younger than 38, because it was suspected that the West Africans were up to no good with the declared ages of their players.

Samich

kitakyushu wrote: »

Nah he wasn't 21. He was 38 in 1990.

What you on about 21 for so? :P

_blank_

Samich wrote: »

What you on about 21 for so? :P

do you not get humour?

Samich

Des wrote: »

do you not get humour?

No.

Frankie Lee

Daniel Amokachi is supposedly only 39 still, which I find hard to believe.

Jimmy Iovine

I remember reading that article in the OP a few years ago. Makes for interesting reading. It also makes for ridiculous reading as well. Could well believe that Kanu is 44. Unbelievable player back in the day though.

Jesus Wept

This is not new information. Thought he was older tbh.

GavRedKing

Think Moyes when he was talking about Yakubu said he was a Nigerian 26, meaning he was probably 40

Schism

Just looked at Yakubu's history there. Apparently he played 23 games in Israel when he was 13, scoring 6 goals. Fair play to him :pac: