There have been many instances of age fraudulence in the beautiful game, such as Gourav Mukhi in India and Carlos Alberto in Brazil.
In Mukhi's case, he became the youngest-ever goalscorer in the Indian Super League at just 16 years old, but he was, in fact, actually 28 years old. It is undoubtedly one of football's most famous instances of age-cheating, but what about Carlos Alberto?
The former prodigy was believed to be in his teens when he lifted the 2003 FIFA World Youth Championship with his country, but was later found to be lying about his age by five years. As punishment, he was handed a one-year ban from the sport.
One of the more recent cases of age-cheating occurred earlier this year when former Senegal international Guirane N'Daw candidly admitted to falsifying his age in order to become a professional player.
What was perhaps more controversial that his confession, however, was N'Daw claiming that "99% of players have reduced their age" in Senegal. Let's hope that is not the case.
In South Africa, former Ajax Cape Town player Sibusiso Mzizi was alleged to have misled authorities into believing he was five years younger than he actually was,in 2019
Guinea U17 face disqualification from the FIFA World Cup in Brazil following CAF Disciplinary Committee's recommendation of their removal after accepting Senegal protest against two of their players for age cheating.
Former Super Eagles defender, Ifeanyi Udeze attributes age cheat as one of the common problems affecting the growth of football globally.
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