The African culture of 'football age' and how Ghanaian players are ageing
Age fraud is very rampant in Africa especial during juvenile tournaments.
In 1989 Nigeria's youth national teams were banned by FIFA from participating in youth tournaments after it was found out that they fielded over-age players in FIFA-organised youth tournaments. The resulting ban lasted for two years. Nigeria was also stripped of its right to host the 1991 FIFA World Youth Championship.
In 2014, Lazio was forced to release documents to prove that Cameroonian forward Joseph Minala is still a teenager, and not in his forties as speculated by the media.
In 2003, Ghana’s Minister of Youth and Sports, Joe Aggrey, conceded that the country cheated on the ages of players registered for international tournaments. “In the past we were cheating and winning, but the right thing must be done now," he said.
Things have changed a little after the introduction of the use of Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was introduced by FIFA in 2009 for the FIFA Under-17 World Cup to help ascertain whether players are over age or not.
We take a look at some Ghanaian footballers with questionable ages
Richard Kingson: The Ghanaian former goalkeeper retired from active football in 2016 at the age of 38 but many believe he may be older than that looking at the duration of his career.
Ibrahim Danlad: The 14-years-old goalkeeper was the youngest player at the recent U-17 World Cup.
Agyemang Badu: It is very difficult to believe that the U-20 World Cup winner is still 27 years
John Mensah: The former Black Stars skipper celebrated his 35th birthday earlier this month and many were surprised at his age.
Thomas Partey: The Atletico Madrid star is just 24 years.