Football's Age Fraud: FIFA Probes Player With 'Four Birthdays'

Everyone has a birthday. A joyful day for receiving presents from family and friends, for blowing out candles on a cake as you celebrate your arrival on this earth. Some people even have two, such as Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, one to mark the date of her birth, and one to celebrate the anniversary of her coronation.
But soccer player Chancel Mbemba Mangulu can top that.

He appears to haves four "birthdays" and it has caused him a lot of problems. So much so that football's world governing body FIFA has now started an investigation.

"We are currently analyzing all the documents at our disposal and investigations against the relevant entities are on-going," FIFA told CNN on Thursday. "In view of this, we cannot comment any further."

Mbemba was part of the Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) squad for the Africa Cup of Nations, considered one of the toughest tournaments in world soccer, but before that, confusion over his date of birth almost put an end to his dreams of a career with a top European club.

Mbemba was registered by his two first Congolese clubs as being born in 1988, according to documents obtained by CNN. Yet for a Cup of Nations qualifier in June 2011, his year of birth was listed as November 30, 1991.

Meanwhile, the birth date recorded by his Belgian club Anderlecht is August 8, 1994. Just to complicate matters, Mbemba himself, thinks he was born in 1990.

European clubs generally regard African players as athletically and technically gifted. Arguably just as importantly they are relatively cheap to buy, with the added potential that clubs can make a large profit if they are sold in the future.

For the players, the idea of becoming of a professional footballer in Europe holds the promise of a better life for themselves abroad and their families back home.

But the issue of age is no trivial matter in football's high-stakes world.

Source: CNN