Kano Pillars’ legendary midfielder Rabiu Ali has long been believed to be Nigeria’s oldest active league player at 44.

Yet, recent revelations from former Enyimba CAF Champions League winner and Kano Pillars assistant coach, Ahmed Garba, known as Yaro Yaro, suggest that Ali’s real age may have been misreported for years due to a simple documentation error, Footballrover reports.

This twist raises curiosity about the true age of a player revered across the Nigerian football scene.

Is Rabiu Ali really 44? Yaro Yaro sheds light on the real age mystery

In a recent interview with CompleteSports, Yaro Yaro shared that Ali’s age discrepancy dates back to 2007, when Ali’s former club, Nasarawa United, entered a continental tournament.

An error in the CAF registration forms, according to Yaro Yaro, led to a recorded age that didn’t accurately reflect Ali’s real birth year. Once set in official records, the error became permanent.

The former Super Eagles forward explained that when Ali joined Kano Pillars in 2009, the team could not correct his age, as CAF records were already fixed.

This misregistration resulted in widespread assumptions about Ali’s age, leading many to accept him as 44, despite evidence suggesting he might be younger.

Yaro Yaro asserts that Rabiu Ali’s true age was misinterpreted through a documentation mishap, a situation that could happen to any player.

He explained that correcting it then would have disrupted the official records, so the mistake persisted.

“When he joined us ahead of our 2009 CAF Champions League campaign, the age in his document couldn’t be changed, as it was already recorded by CAF. Any attempt to alter it would have caused more issues, so it was left as it was. Since then, people have assumed he is 44 and, therefore, considered old,” he said.

In response to curiosity about Ali’s true age, Yaro Yaro believes the midfielder was likely around 18 or 19 when he joined Kano Pillars.

Based on this, the assistant coach speculates that Ali’s current age could be between 33 and 34, not the widely accepted 44.

“Rabiu was still a very young player then, probably around 18 or 19 years. When he joined us at Kano Pillars, there was nothing we could do to correct the age, as it was already recorded by CAF. So, I believe Rabiu is not as old as reported. It’s just a documentation mistake, which could happen to anyone,” he concluded.

As a result, Ali continues to be celebrated as a veteran, but his real age remains a topic of intrigue.

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