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Did Nigerian striker Silas Nwankwo lie about his age? Supporters of Swedish club Mjällby AIF (Ligue 1) have been convinced of this since the recruitment of the former Nasarawa United player in early February. Officially, Nwankwo was born on December 12, 2003, but in the 2021 edition of the Foot Manager video game, known to be quite fussy in the matter, it is the date of June 11, 1996 which appears. Discovering the face of the player on his arrival in Sweden, the commentators were ironic: the attacker is 18 years old, but “18 years of career behind him”because his features are rather those of“a 40-year-old man”.
The latest example of alleged fraud, the Nwankwo case has reignited the controversy over age fraud among African players despite efforts to stem the phenomenon. The former Senegalese international Guirane N’Daw, who passed through Sochaux, Metz and Saint-Etienne in particular, recognized this bluntly at the start of 2020: “Like all Senegalese, I cheated on my age (…). In Africa, I do not even say in Senegal, the player who does not reduce his age cannot be professional. » In the same year, the Belgian Karel Brokken, director of the West African Football Academy in Ghana, believed that the phenomenon concerned “95% of African players”.
In case of doubt, it is said of the claimant that“he is 20 years old excluding tax”. Many footballers have been singled out in recent years, from Cameroonian Joseph Minala, when he transferred to Lazio Rome in 2014 when he was officially 17, to Nigerian Victor Emenayo when he signed for Shahdag Qusar in Azerbaijan in 2016, passing Francis Uzoho, the Nigerian Super Eagles goalkeeper during the 2018 World Cup. Kanu and Taribo West had also been called into question, but without any formal proof being advanced.
“Strong social pressure”
It is no coincidence that sub-Saharan Africa concentrates all of the recently declared cases. “In some countries, and even more so in remote places, parents sometimes wait several months or even years before registering the birth of a child”, explains the leader of a Senegalese club who wished to remain anonymous. But fraud can happen later.
“For example, a player who is officially 23 years old will obtain a fake birth certificate from a municipal official for a little money, in order to be transferred to a European club and have a chance to make a career longer. There is significant social pressure in Africa and for a player from a very modest background, it is an opportunity to get out, his family and himself, from precariousness.specifies this same leader.
According to Eugène Diomandé, president of Séwé Sport de San Pedro (Côte d’Ivoire, Ligue 1), ” cheating is on average three years between the real age and the announced age, even if we are presented with official papers”. “I sometimes refused the signature of players who claimed to be 16 or 17 years old when they were obviously 24 or 25, because they were 1.85 m tall and had the features of an adult!he adds. Because there are bound to be consequences linked to this fraud: a player who has cheated and who says he is 26 when he is 30 will become less efficient with age, and he will be more exposed to the risk of injury, and his club will be harmed. »
Splashed by these repeated cases, the continent’s sports institutions have tightened controls. Since 2018, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) has had MRI scans performed to assess bone age before certain continental competitions reserved for minors. Some results have led the body to exclude from its tournaments players convicted of fraud, or even entire selections such as Benin, Guinea or Gambia. The test, which is carried out on the wrists, is deemed reliable, but clubs rarely use it because of its high cost and the low number of hospitals equipped.
“Amounts of money at stake”
“A few years ago, fraud was organized at almost industrial rates, it is a little less the case todaynevertheless observes Eugène Diomandé. Some federations provide better monitoring of professional players via photos, fingerprints. In the clubs, we rely on our instinct, on physical appearance, we try to trace the school career to check the marital status. »
ASEC Mimosas (Côte d’Ivoire), which has one of the most renowned academies in Africa and has trained great Ivorian players such as Yaya Touré, Kolo Touré or Gervinho, has been multiplying initiatives for several years to ensure that the age of its young players is closest to reality. “The youngest join the academy around 11-12 years old. We ask for information from maternities, schools, our doctors carry out various examinations to check that they are indeed of the announced age, but it is difficult to have absolute certainty.notes Benoît You, the general manager.
European clubs, which are well aware of these realities, seem in some cases to put up with them. Asked about the role of the agents in this fraud, the Frenchman Stéphane Canard, also president of the Union of Sports Agents of Football (UASF), recalls that the members of the profession “can only be based on the official documents, passport or identity card, provided by the players. They do not have the power to carry out checks on civil status and must trust the administrations which issued these papers. “The sums of money at stake during transfers are such that the shenanigans, even if there are more checks than before, will continue”concludes another agent on condition of anonymity.