Usually, when I write an "Introduction" to a series it's usually a short introduction followed by the first and maybe second point. This one, however, will be a complete introduction to the topic only.
The Many Questions
Researching this topic started with many questions I had. Oddly enough all those questions seem to have one answer to explain them all.
Questions like, why have African teams won 5 U-20 World Cups and a gold medal in the Olympics without that success reflecting on the first team? Why do many African players, western Africans in specific, start their career in Europe at a young age yet start declining before others, often in their mid-20s? Why do all global trophies African nations win happen at a certain age group?
Why do players like Ahmed Musa, Yakubu Ayegbeni, Asamoah Gyan, and Vincent Aboubakar, who are just some of the names, have such baffling careers? And the final question, which is actually the first that got me into this topic, to begin with, why did Pele predict an African nation to win the World Cup?
This is going to be an odd, a bit funny, and a bit sad series that could potentially explain half of the mysteries happening in African football.
Odd Careers
If we look at the careers of some of the African players in the past 2 to 3 decades, specifically players who many predicted to shine in the future, we will notice a certain, repetitive pattern. Most of those players came from West Africa, more specifically, Cameron, Nigeria, and Ghana.
Nigerian player, Odion Ighalo, moved to Udinesse at 19. His performance, and market value started declining at the age of 27. Vincent Aboubakar came out of nowhere basically in the French club, Valenciennes, at the age of 18. His career started declining, same as his transfer value, at the age of 26. If you're a Fifa or PES player, you definitely remember Ahmed Musa, as he had a top speed in both games at some point. Ahmed Musa came to CSKA Moscow at 19, and his career started declining at 24. Ahmed Musa is an odd case because there was a point when he didn't have a club when he was only 28.
Asamoah Gyan joined Udinese at 19. He started his decline at 25 when joined the Emirati club Al Ain. Stephen Appiah, slightly older than Gyan, also joined Udinese at a young age and shined at Juventus to a certain extent. Then his career started declining at 26 years old. Obafemi Martins joined Inter Milan at 19 years old. His European career started declining at 22 and he was out of Europe by 28.
Yakubu Ayegbeni, one of Everton and Premier League's most dangerous attackers at some point in history, started his European career with Portsmouth at 21 before ascending the latter and had his best two-three years at Everton. His decline started at 26 years old.
I know it looks like I am overdoing it with the examples, and trust me I can write a whole series of 10 posts just with these examples, but the reason behind that is to point out that it is not just a few exceptional cases, it is a pattern.
Explanations
Many explanations came to the surface as I am definitely not the first person to notice this. Some said many players had suspicious activities outside of football, others said they were put under too much pressure at a young age. Many even went sentimental and said that once these players felt financial safety, they lost the passion to keep playing as they're not like European players who will play like machines just to keep playing and making more money.
Just a few explanations and life goes on. After all, we see it every two years or so. An African nation or two shine in either the World Cup U-20 or the African Nations Cup U-20. Players from those nations join European clubs, make some money and as we saw, they quickly move out of Europe and leave space for the next shining prodigy.
Principle Of Parsimony
As complicated of an issue as this might look on the outside with so many questions attached to it, many of which I am sure you thought about at a certain point, it turned out that the answer is a bit obvious and a bit silly to have put so much thought into it.
The principle of parsimony, or Occam's razor, is a principle created by 14th-century English philosopher and theologian, William of Ockham. If you're a medical student or have been a part of a police academy, or even watched medical or police dramas, then you definitely saw that principle mentioned in one way or another.
The simplest explanation that will account for a circumstance or event is most likely the correct explanation.
Think about that principle and let's just apply it to this situation. If most football players start performing their best in their mid-20s and start declining in their early-30s, then a group of players come from the same regions with many similar cultural, political, and societal aspects, and if that group starts performing their best in teenage and earl-20s level then start declining in their mid-20s, then the answer is pretty simple.
According to William of Ockham's principle of parsimony, the answer is simply that age group is most likely that group of players when they started performing at their top level, they weren't in their early-20s or late teenage years, and when they started declining, they weren't in their mid-20s. This means the 4-7 years shift separating this group from the rest of the world is most likely the result of forgery.
In other words, if we add 4-7 years to the age of the players mentioned above, their careers, and subsequently all the questions asked at the beginning of this article, will be explained.
This of course may come off as an insulting, offensive, and maybe racist accusation. However, as we will see in the upcoming parts, this is not just a conclusion I reached using some Transfermarkt graphs and a 14th-century principle. In fact, that wasn't my attempt to prove or use any of that as evidence to back up my statement. It was merely my attempt to add suspense and find examples.
As we will see in the upcoming parts, age forgery in Africa is actually proven with official punishments, accusations, statements, and confessions.