Every weekend i watch the EPL, i keep pondering on this. Are European footballers really innocent of Age Fraud as the media will like us to believe? Is age fraud really just an African or South American thing?

I just read where Lampard was blaming fatigue for his players inability to perform in the defeat against Wolves and I couldn't help but wonder where the fatigue stemmed from exactly. They last played on Saturday against Everton which gives them 3 solid days to rest, yet these guys say they are fatigued? How?

Football is played for 90mins split into two halves of 45mins with a 15min break between halves. Yet, they talk about fatigue? Mind you, they do not run marathons on the pitch, for the most part, they jog around, sometimes walk, they only move at full speed when going on counters or trying to stop one. So how cant these guys perform optimally twice in a week?

For context, I have a cousin who is a football freak. At 33, he plays on Friday evenings and Sunday mornings every week. But never says he is too tired to play the next week. How then can a professional footballer who has access to world class training grounds, clinically designed pitches, personalized training routine, top psychologists, top nutritionists and dietitians, top sporting gears that have been designed to bring the best out of them tell me he is too tired too play, unless his biological clock is ticking.

The local street footballers even play everyday on tattered boots, terrible ground with zero protection. Most of them do menial jobs, eat carbohydrate laden foods 80% of the time, have no rest, yet can play for 2hrs everyday.

How can a footballer retire at 33 to 35 saying he can't play a 90mins game anymore for once a week? I really can't wrap my head around this. Personally, I believe most of them may not be as young as they will like us to believe.

Tripitaka:

How can a footballer retire at 33 to 35 saying he can't play a 90mins game anymore for once a week? I really can't wrap my head around this. Personally, I believe most of them may not be as young as they will like us to believe.
Lalasticlala seun

Lol. They all lie about their age, whether African, Asian or European. Just very few of them are innocent of this. Come to my street and see 40yr old men playing almost every evening. Despite the rough tackles and bruises.

Tripitaka:

There are some though who I believe are honest with their age. What beats me is why a footballer will retire around 34 to 35 considering they have everything to enable them play into their 40s. Unless age is against them, you know one can't cheat nature.

maybe when they claim 35,they are already 45.

100%

They have database. You cannot forge age na. In their primary and secondary schools every one in a class is the same age. So how you wan fake the age

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Abroad , they catch them young, in africa you must strive really hard to get recognised and to play in europe , age matters ...

They cheat,if na lie ask Diago Costa,Gourav Mukhi. Gourav Mukhi,Carlos Alberto and many more.

I understand Africans cheat in terms of football age,but judging them by their facial appearance is a misnomer.

Africans and hardship are like 5n6.Our weather is also another factor which could make us look older than our age.

lie leie

Haba Victor!

Chaii

those faces up there can never be 19 or 21
and I thought its only civil service work that they denied age...oboy use ya head o
.

Do you know how many hours they spend training every day?

Have you played on a standard full-length pitch before?

Me I be 11 for football age

At least for Europe, there are concrete records of birth and progression through the ranks of football from academies to professional football.

Hmmmmm. They lie too

G

Their own is mild

Omo football as a career isn't as easy as you described oo

They train every day, run around doing cardiovascular straining exercise


Well on Age falsification, Africans generally have a late breakthrough in life in all career



.

Their age looks reasonable

The way all of them ugly sef ion think they are lying

Some south americans and some europeans also falsify age, it's a general thing just that africa took it way over board to give them selves more time to hustle and make it.

If Victor Emanayo is 23 in that pix, then I m still a foetus