Former Manchester United defender Fabio Da Silva has alleged that Ghana fielded overage players during the 2007 Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) Under-17 World Cup in South Korea, raising fresh questions about one of African youth football’s long-standing controversies.
Fabio made the claims during a podcast featuring his twin brother Rafael Da Silva, alongside former Manchester United teammates Patrice Evra and Ji-Sung Park. The four players, who all shared the dressing room at Old Trafford, recently reunited for the recording.
The 2007 tournament, won by Nigeria’s Golden Eaglets, featured several players who would go on to become global stars, including Germany’s Toni Kroos, Spain’s Bojan Krkic and England’s Danny Welbeck. Ghana’s Black Starlets reached the semifinals before falling 2-1 to Spain in extra time, and subsequently lost to Germany in the third-place playoff to finish fourth.
Brazil, featuring both Fabio and Rafael, were eliminated at the semifinal stage after a 1-0 defeat to Ghana. When the podcast group discussed Brazil’s exit, Rafael highlighted their loss to the Black Starlets, which prompted Fabio to raise doubts about the ages of their opponents.
“They said they were 17 years old, but I don’t think so,” Fabio claimed. “I think they were 25 years. I spoke with one of them; he already had three kids.”
The claims are unverified. No official investigation has ever substantiated age fraud allegations against the 2007 Ghanaian squad, and FIFA did not introduce mandatory MRI age-screening for the Under-17 World Cup until 2009, two years after the South Korea tournament.
Age fraud in African youth football has, however, been a genuine and documented issue across multiple nations and eras. A member of Ghana’s title-winning 1991 squad later admitted to being three or four years older than the stipulated age limit at the time. In 2014, Ghana’s Under-17 team was separately banned from the 2015 African Under-17 Championship after being found guilty of fielding overage players in a qualifier against Cameroon.
The Ghana Football Association (GFA) has not responded to Fabio’s latest claims.
