Wilfried Nathan Douala, presented as a 17-year-old prodigy from Cameroon during CAN 2024, would have lied about his age or even his identity. The French daily Le Monde makes revelations going even further: Wilfried Nathan.
Douala is actually called Alexandre Bardelli and is at least 23 years old. Age fraud is a scourge of African football. For equal talent, it is easier to catch the eye of a European club when you are 17 rather than 23. A player who pretends to be younger will have a better chance of joining a training center, because he will outperform.