5 times Karma has ‘exposed’ ages of Nigerian players

Karma is a five letter word, but the spelling starts with a B!  

To correctly understand Karma, one would have to frame it within reincarnation but that’s not what we have in mind.

You must have heard the saying “What goes around comes around” – the belief that a bad thing that happened to someone is deserved because of their past bad deeds.

Well, we are using the phrase to mean it more in terms of recompense in this life. And the B-word part is not aimed at Karma – the concept – but at the resulting punishment, where it refers to the unpleasantness of being punished for something you did.

Like lying about your age in order to play in age-grade competitions!

WEDDING ANNIVERSARY ‘EXPOSES’ SIA1

Forty-seven-year-old Samson Siasia recently celebrated his 30th wedding anniversary with heartthrob, Eunice.

The former Super Eagles player and coach, now with the U-23 team, got a surprise from his players and backroom staff after he was presented with a beautiful cake to mark his wedding anniversary celebration.

But by the wedding anniversary and his age, Siasia must have married in 1985 at 17!

We say this because he was a member of the Flying Eagles to 1985 World Youth Championship in USSR at that age.

Before then, at 14, Siasia was a member of the Mexico ’83 Flying Eagles – though he did not play any game before the country was knocked out at the group stage.

We are not saying that it’s impossible to get married at 17.

But we are just wondering if Eunice’s father wouldn’t have felt embarrassed walking with a minor – his 15-year-old daughter – up the aisle. But then, our conclusion is based on the assumptions that Eunice was 15 in 1985 and the union was solemnised in a church!

INTERVIEW ‘EXPOSES’ AJIBOYE  

Dele Ajiboye’s recent interview with Soccer Star newspaper showed that you can fool FIFA and MRI scan in 2007, but you cannot fool an observant reader in 2015.

In the chat, the Golden Eaglets gold medal-winning goalkeeper in the FIFA U-17 World Cup in 2007 inadvertently revealed he was older than he claimed eight years earlier.

When asked about his role model as a professional goalkeeper, the Kwara United keeper revealed the person without much fuss.

“I have many role models. Anyone I learn from is my role model,” he said. “I could remember when I was still a young boy; I do watch Peter Rufai and I learnt a lot from him.”

Ajiboye is 25 now and 17 in 2007 but we doubt he was referring to the Peter Rufai of 1998 World Cup.

Nobody learnt anything fruitful and meaningful from Rufai of 1998.

Even Ajiboye at age eight couldn’t have learnt anything worthy from the fumbling Dodo Mayana except, of course, how to make cheap goals look spectacular.

Then, we are assuming Ajiboye was referring to the Rufai of 1994 Africa Cup of Nations and World Cup.

But in 1994, Ajiboye was four!

BIRTHDAY ‘EXPOSES’ TAIWO

When Taiye Taiwo turned 27 on April 16, 2012, he got congratulatory messages, gifts, and a shocking message.

His twin sister, Kehinde Taiwo, marked her 39th “many happy returns” same day!

We have heard of twins who are days apart but 4,380 days apart?

Gladly, it proved to be a hoax which the former Super Eagles left-back described as a sick joke.

“I don’t know what kind of sick joke this is, or the kind of sick person who will come up with it,” he told KickOffNigeria.com.

“I did not even know my twin. I was very young when my father told me that she died when we were young. Why is it that people are always looking for a way to bring others down? I don’t understand it.”

We don’t understand either but what we do understand is that Taiwo started his professional football career with Gabros International at 18.

In 2005, Taiwo was signed by French club, Olympique Marseille. He was 20.

In 2011, Taiwo was signed by Italian club, AC Milan. He was 26.

On January 24, 2012, Queens Park Rangers secured the signing of Taiwo from Milan on a loan deal until the end of the season, with the option to buy for a fee of around £3.5 million. He was 27.

On July 31, 2012, Taiwo joined Dynamo Kyiv on a one-year loan deal with the option of making the move permanent at the end of the season. He was still 27.

On July 5, 2013, Taiwo signed a three-year deal with Turkish side Bursaspor. He was 28.

On April 27, 2015, Taiwo mutually agreed to have his contract terminated with Bursaspor. He was 30.

On June 21, 2015, Taiwo “retired” from the game. He’s still 30.

AMIESIMAKA ‘EXPOSES’ FORTUNE

In 2009 during the FIFA U-17 World Cup hosted in Nigeria, former Green Eagles player Adokiye Amiesimaka and Golden Eaglets captain Fortune Chukwudi “remixed” Fela Anikulapo-Kuti’s hit track, Authority Stealing.

You are a thief

I am not a thief

You are a cheat

I am not a cheat

You are over-aged

I am not over-aged…

This verbal volleyball was sparked when Amiesimaka spoke his mind after Nigeria’s opening 3-3 draw with Germany at the Abuja National Stadium on October 24.

“In the 2002/2003 season, I was chairman of Sharks Football Club of Port Harcourt. I decided to have a feeder team of fresh school leavers not older than 20 years. One of my key players then is the current captain of our so-called Under 17 Golden Eaglets. By his own admission at that time, that is seven years ago, he was 18 years old…If we are not utterly irresponsible, how can he be eligible for this tournament when he is not less than 25 years old now?” Amiesimaka wrote in the Punch newspaper.

Chukwudi shrugged off the distracting tunes to lead Nigeria to second position, losing 1-0 to Switzerland in the final.

But his career nosedived after the competition.

To put it into perspective, Kenneth Omeruo, his central defensive partner, has gone on to play for the Super Eagles of Nigeria.

DID ANDERLECHT ‘EXPOSE’ OSONDU?

Phillip Osondu was the best player at the 1987 U-17 World Cup, after which he was snapped up by Anderlecht of Belgium.

And for eight, he literally grew fat at the club’s expense.

It was rumoured that the young Osondu turned the dietary regime of the club on its head after the foreign food he was being fed with did not help his growth the way the club anticipated.

Rather than growing taller like other players of his age in the club’s rank, Osondu grew stockier and more round the waist.

This story remains the stuff of legends, as it’s quite difficult to prove its veracity but the forward was released by Anderlecht in 1996 at the age of 25.

He drifted out of the game and into janitorial oblivion!

You need more on Osondu? Hear this…

“You needed to have seen my son play the game before the civil war,” Osondu’s mother was quoted to have said after the Golden Eaglets’ exploit in Canada ’87.

Like the dietary brouhaha, it’s difficult to prove the veracity of the quote made 20 years after Yakubu Gowon and Odimegwu Ojukwu abandoned jaw-jaw for war-war. But…

“Isn’t Karma a b-t-h?”

Who can disprove this? Obviously not Siaisia, Ajiboye, Taiwo, Chukwudi, Osondu or…