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Yakubu 28? Interesting article on false dob's for Nigerian players

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After yakubu signed for leicester it stated his age was 28, the below article suggests this is more than likely far from the truth indicating the likes of Kanu and Taribo West are actually in their 40''s and 50''s respectively.

Really interesting read, not NCFC related but a great read for any football fans

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

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The thing is, they are going to age differently to ''us'' anyway, There from a different continent, and have a completely different culture, how many cities in the whole of Africa are anything like something we have here?

He may have been working from a young age, i''m sure that still happens to most families in africa, which will age people more, so even though he is 28, he might look older.... (or he could be older, and just lied about his age....)

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True. Even youngsters like Daniel Sturridge and Frank Nouble are pretty huge considering they''re age. I know they''re both English but obviously have African roots.

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Finidi George was rumoured to be much older than his official age when he signed for Ipswich.... I know several Town fans and they reckon he was well into his fifties.

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Mario Balotelli is also West African and at the age of 18 he was well developed:[IMG]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c8/Mario_Balotelli_-_Inter_Mailand_(2).jpg/400px-Mario_Balotelli_-_Inter_Mailand_(2).jpg[/IMG]Similarly, this is Mike Tyson at the age of 14:[IMG]http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/10/13/article-1220014-00EF2BDF00000191-921_468x361.jpg[/IMG]There seems to be a few people of West African origin who appear a lot older, or more physically developed, than they actually are- and there can be no disputing the ages of Balotelli and Tyson as they were born and raised in Italy and America respectively.But, saying that, Kanu and Yakubu both declined in terms of ability and pace around their mid/late twenties, and a lot of players, such as Martins, peaked rather early. I had also heard the story about Nigeria cutting half of their squad for a youth tournament after doing bone scans to determine their real ages before. So, maybe there might be something in this.

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Trouble is that all of this is based upon what people have reported on blogs and internet sites. Hardly reliable is it?

Imagine an article by someone in say the US about the population of Suffolk having done an internet trawl including this site!

Sorry not very convinced.

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To be honest I think it''s just that if you develop physically at a young age, you''ll burn out younger. West Africans do bulk out at younger ages - look at the size of Romelu Lukaku, google image him and you''ll see him at 16 - it''s unbelievable but he is.

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I just find it impossible to belive that players can keep going at top levels into thier 40''s.This seems an interesting article but I find it a bit difficult to belive !

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After looking at a few pictures of Yakubu I have decided there is no way in hell that this man is 2 years younger than me.If this is true then he had one hell of a paper round !

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This is very common, especially those that come from smaller villages. One of my jobs was to collect the passports of the joining vessel crew. Most had little idea of their date of births, and it used to work both ways. One guy who was clearly in his 20''s, had a D.O.B, that made him 53.

Couldn''t work out why they all had the same shirt and tie on until i found out that they hire them from the government office. And unlike Peterborough, they have to bribe the teller twice the price of your passport to get it. Different world believe me

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I have heard of a cricketer who went on to play for England who was pulled out of a international youth team tour when he was younger because of a potential discrepancy in his age.

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