ashezbrown: well eaglet all the way, bt all dos boz na baba, i tink the younger ones among them will be 22yrs if am nt mistaking, jst imagine ur junior broda of 17yrs at home, u will understand weller.

100ksales.com:
All our boiz don old jor.. Call a spade a spade.
I you see 17 yr old boy for road most dey small.

illitrate: tell me this mosquito of brazil is 17

biggest cheat in this world cup is brazil.

nolio: We b 3time champions of dis comptetn but non of d boys eva play 4 madrid,barca,man u,arsenal,chelsea,inter,AC not even celta vigo and u tink say na ordinary. If dese boys are dere tru age, y dont we maintain dem like dis up to super eagles? Luk @ argentina team 2dy,its made up of dat U-17 team from holland 2005 wit d likes of messi,zabaleta, and mascherano in it. Sharawy and neymar are from U-17 2009 for italy and brazil. But pls tel me if u wuld see any of dese boys in super eagles in d nxt 4yr cum 2017. Does it mean dey retire imedi8ly afta U-17?
I rest ma case

ighoosagie: make coach Ali Doustimehr apologize for his comment.



If its sen ted Cruz , u guys would say it's insult to our integrity , just within 10days Nigeria has been labeled for cheating and fraud frm different continent.

This types of comments would be heard continuously inside n outside the country, until we learn to do things right without cheat and fraud.


We all know dat a real 17yrs old in nija can't kick real leather football , more less of shooting the ball from outside d 18yard to get a spectacular goal.


Niger make una dey fear God

vincentont:


u are absolutely wrong.at age 15 dis days most of the students are already in ss3.the fact that u finished ur ss3 at the age of 18 might nt be applicable to others.Infact i knew some1 who just graduated recently at age 20, nd if u see him he looks lyk 25yrs old.children of now adays matured rapidly abi u knw knw say a boy of 15ys don dey father a child,even dey sleep wit their teacher of 20 somtin years.i also knew of a girl 12yrs in ss2,if u see her on the road u will ask her out coz she looks much older than her age.

dabossman:

So, this argument is still raging. Guy, you only mentioned 3 players from the Argentine U-20 of 2005. I can counter your argument by naming more Nigerians from that tournament who have played/are playing for the Eagles. Taye Taiwo, Elderson Echiejile, Efe Ambrose, Chinedu Obasi, Mikel Obi, late Olufemi Adebayo, Onyekachi Apam and Sani Keita.

Now these Argentines were also part of the team that won that tourney, Gustavo Cabral, Julio Barroso, Lucas Biglia, Pablo Vitti, Patricio Pérez, Emiliano Armenteros, Gabriel Paletta, Nereo Champagne, David Abraham, Rodrigo Archubi, Neri Cardozo, Gustavo Oberman, Lautaro Formica. That is more than half of the winning team. How many of them do you know? How many of them can boast of having more than 10 caps for Argentina at senior level?

Some of you fail to realize that U-17 and U-20 championships occur every two years. That means a pool of at least 42 youth players are thrown up every two years. That is 84 by the time the senior World Cup comes up. Can they all graduate to senior level? The answer is a big NO!

The present first 11 of Nigeria has at least 7 former youth internationals (Ambrose, Omeruo, Echiejile, Mikel, Onazi, Musa, Ideye) from different generations. Go back and look at the Super Eagles over the years, it is the same trend. Our squad to the last World Cup in SA had at least 11 former youth players. Even world champions Spain have players from different generations in it and not just one set.

ighoosagie: make coach Ali Doustimehr apologize for his comment.



If its sen ted Cruz , u guys would say it's insult to our integrity , just within 10days Nigeria has been labeled for cheating and fraud frm different continent.

This types of comments would be heard continuously inside n outside the country, until we learn to do things right without cheat and fraud.


We all know dat a real 17yrs old in nija can't kick real leather football , more less of shooting the ball from outside d 18yard to get a spectacular goal.


Niger make una dey fear God

American golfer Tom Shaw claimed throughout his career on the PGA Tour to have been born on December 13, 1942. He was suspected by some of being older, notably by Frank Hannigan, who as Executive Director of the United States Golf Association paired him with the then-19-year-old Ben Crenshaw and 24-year-old Johnny Miller, both known as fast players, for the first two rounds of the 1971 U.S. Open for his apparent amusement. As it turned out, Hannigan was right; in 1988, Shaw produced a birth certificate proving that he had been born on the same date in 1938, which made him eligible for the Senior PGA Tour (now the Champions Tour) starting with the 1989

The father of UCLA blue chip Shabazz Muhammad was found to be lying about his son’s age:

According to the UCLA men’s basketball media guide, he was born in Los Angeles on Nov. 13, 1993. But a copy of Shabazz Nagee Muhammad’s birth certificate on file with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health shows that he was born at Long Beach Memorial Hospital exactly one year earlier, making him 20 years old — not 19 as widely reported.

How and when he lost a year of his life are unclear. But competing against younger, smaller athletes, particularly in the fast-growing years of early adolescence, can be “a huge edge,” said Eddie Bonine, executive director of the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Assn. “People naturally look at the big, strong kids.”

Asked about the discrepancy, Holmes insisted his son was 19 and born in Nevada. “It must be a mistake,” he said. Several minutes later, he changed his account, saying that his son is, in fact, 20 and was born in Long Beach.

…

But the story details how Holmes has always believed he’d be the father of professional athletes, and there’s no denying a year advantage over competitors growing up can be a huge advantage, and that a 19-year-old Muhammad is more attractive to NBA scouts than a 20-year-old Muhammad, if only slightly. Either way, the most interesting thing is that Holmes lied initially, initially lied when he got caught and then seemingly tried to bribe the Los Angeles Times writer. His name is Ken Bensinger.

It makes you wonder how many paid athletes were ‘redshirted’ by their parents.  And of that subset, how many of those kids’ ages were falsely lowered in order to make them seem like they have greater long-term upside.  This is just a really easy way to make the kid look better than he is and to build buzz.  All you need is a parent or guardian who is willing to go to that length to pull it off.

Sports academic Dave Berri has looked into the relationship between age and draft position for the NBA.  He found that each extra year decreases draft position by six places.  I’m assuming that his analysis controlled for statistical output and that he was purely measuring age.

One of the top basketball recruits from the D.C. area claims to be 18, but some documents show that he may be 20.  He’s African and the cousin of NBA player Serge Ibaka.  You’ll see a lot of this stuff from international players in basketball and soccer and the Dominicans and Puerto Ricans in baseball.  Youth is valuable.

For further reading on Muhammad and his father, check out Joe Nocera’s New York Times piece on NCAA sanctions against Muhammad.