The stigma of Joseph Minala, the young African accused of being 42 years old: what happened to his life?

The Cameroonian Football Federation’s decision to suspend 62 players for the last stretch of the local championship was saved for having detected irregularities in the documentation with which they had been registered by their respective clubs (mainly alteration of the date of birth and duplication of identity). from the memory of some the case of Giuseppe Maria Minalafootballer whose career was marred by an accusation in this regard which could never be proven.

“Joseph Marie Minala was born in Yaoundé on 24 August 1996”. The beginning of a standard encyclopedic biography of the man in question is, in fact, the heart of a story in which there has always been an undercurrent of racism. That day and in the Cameroonian capital, her birth was registered, without anyone being able to provide even proof of anything different. However, there are thousands of people who are still wary and speak sarcastically about the situation that has marked the midfielder’s career.

Minala arrived in Italy in 2011, when she was 14, with the aim of realizing her dream of earning a living by kicking a ball. Even if things, at first, didn’t go as planned. “They made me go to Rome with the promise of a trial in Milan. When I arrived at Termini station, a person told me to wait five minutes, that he would pick up some friends to take me to Milan. I waited hours, but he didn’t come back. I didn’t have a phone, so I went to the nearest police station, which took me to a family’s house,” she said in an interview with Calciomercato in 2022.

“At first I asked for help to return to Cameroon, but then I adapted. I learned to make pizzas, mow the lawn and started going to school.“, he detailed. While he was adapting to life in Italy, he made contacts to try his luck in football. This is how he came to contact the charismatic Mino Raiolawho was your first representative. The agent who worked with the Norwegian Erling HaalandSwedish Zlatan Ibrahimovicthe Dutch Dennis Bergkamp and French Paolo Pogbaamong others, they got him a trial in Naples.

“It went well and I stayed for a year. Then I decided to leave because an unaccompanied foreign minor had to wait three years to be able to play. Otherwise I had to do it in an amateur team,” he explained.

Then he returned to Rome and joined the modest Vigor Perconti. His performances allowed him to compete and win the prestigious Tournament of Regions in 2013: he was champion with Lazio in the Student category.

That window put him on the radar of Inter, Milan, Udinese and Spezia (“later I also had offers from Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester United”, he boasted), but He ended up joining Lazio’s lower divisions in August 2013.. On 2 December of the same year, the capital club completed the process for the player’s registration with the Italian Football Federation (FIGC). To do so, he presented his Cameroonian passport and his Italian identity document, which showed his date of birth as 24 August 1996. No one objected.

Two months later, when he was already one of the protagonists of the Primavera category (concerns players between 15 and 20 years old) of Biancocelestithe Cameroonian was summoned for the first time by the coach of the senior national team, Edoardo Reja, for the derby against Roma which would have been played on 9 February, valid for the 23rd matchday of Serie A (finally he was not included either among the starters or among the substitutes).

In those days, which should have been happy for the player, the website Afrik-foot.com published an article questioning his age based on photographs that supposedly demonstrated that his physique was not compatible with that of a teenager. Without further information or verification, several media outlets replicated the pseudo-investigation and even one, Senegal’s Senego.net, included statements attributed to Minala: “I’m not 17, I’ll be 42 in August.”. All this was replicated ad nauseam on social networks, also peppered with racist comments of all kinds.

Lazio immediately denied the version: in an official statement they confirmed the legitimacy of the documentation presented to the FIGC, denounced “a new attempt by hostile circles to obscure the club’s actions” and announced that he will take legal action against those who continue to attack “the good name of the club and the player”.

The midfielder also raised his voice and categorically denied the words that the Senego.net portal had attributed to him. “These are false statements attributed to me by people I don’t know. and against whom I reserve any compensation action”, he assured.

Due to this media outcry and without any complaint, the FIGC launched an investigation to ascertain whether there had been any irregularity in the player’s registration. “I have always made myself available to the Federation because I have never had anything to hide. People made fun of me and the people close to me They didn’t protect me at that time,” he said years later.

While this was happening, Minala made his debut for the Lazio senior national team: it was 6 April 2014 in the match in which the Roman team beat Sampdoria 2-0 at the Olympic Stadium for the 32nd matchday of Serie A. That day he came on in the 32nd minute of the second half for the Bosnian Senad Lulić.

After a fairly discreet investigation, the FIGC closed its case on 28 May. “The Federal Prosecutor’s Office, having examined the investigation report and its attachments, has ordered the archiving of the documents relating to the investigation into the real age of the Lazio footballer Joseph Minala“, communicated the parent company of Italian football. No irregularities had been detected. At that point, the 17-year-old midfielder had played three matches for the main team and he shone in Spring: He scored three goals in the Italian Cup final of the category against Fiorentina.

However, Minala was never able to shake off the stigma due to the alleged adulteration of her date of birth which no one could prove. In Lazio the doors soon closed on him. In the 2013/14 season he was loaned to Bari, who participated in the Serie B championship. That year he played 18 matches and scored three goals. “I came to live an important experience and I’m happy with how it went. Now I know that I can compete in a difficult championship like this. Bari gave me a lot,” he said at the end of that season.

Although he had to return to Lazio, the capital club lent him again, this time to Latina, still in Serie B. It was the second chapter in a long series of loans. After representing the Winged lions In the first half of the 2014/15 season he returned to Bari for six months. Subsequently he played twice at Salernitana and also played for Qingdao Huanghai of the Chinese Super League in 2020, in the most difficult moment of the coronavirus pandemic.

After many moves and having been able to play only one more match with the blue shirt in seven years (in January 2020 against Cremonese in the round of 16 of the Italian Cup), the bond between the player and Lazio ended in June. 2021. Four months later, the Cameroonian signs a one-year contract with Lucchese, coming from Serie C. There he plays 20 games and scores 3 goals.

Two less than convincing experiences followed. First he spent just over four months at Olbia, still in Serie C. And between March and June 2023 he landed in Latvia at Liepaja, despite playing only 46 minutes spread over two matches. Subsequently he changed course again and on 29 July he signed a contract with Sliema Wanderers, the most successful team in the history of the Maltese Premier League.

After a decade of professional career, Minala remains convinced that that false accusation affected his destiny in football. “I’m sure the age issue has always slowed down my career. Every time I was loaned out I had good seasons, but I never had the same opportunities as the others at Lazio. “I think the club was conditioned by that age situation,” she said. “They have always judged me for this and never for my performances”, added the midfielder who is now 27 years old. Although some continue to believe that he will turn 52 on August 24th.