Italian FA confirms Lazio youth player Joseph Minala is 17 and not 42

The Italian Football Association has confirmed that Lazio midfielder Joseph Minala is indeed 17 and not 42 as had been alleged.

In February, an African football website claimed that Cameroon-born Minala was pretending to be a teenager so he was eligible to play for Lazio’s youth side and had altered his passport to take a full 25 years of his actual birth date. That led to an official investigation which saw him questioned by the league’s federal prosecutor.

However a statement released by the Italian association on Wednesday confirmed that Minala has been cleared and is now free to resume his career. “The federal prosecutor has examined the report and ordered the investigation to be closed,” the statement read. “There are no doubts about his age. He is 17.”