Cameroon: The former Indomitable Lions defender Oyongo Bitolo stood up for Wilfried Nathan, who is facing age fraud allegations.
While showing his support, Bitolo said that for the past few months, the young brother (referring to Wilfried Nathan) has been enduring numerous scares on social media.
He raised doubts, saying, “But why focus on the young player who is just starting his career instead of protecting him?”
Bitolo added further, “Yesterday, his call-up to the CAN (Africa Cup of Nations) was questioned, and today, his age is being scrutinized.”
“What will it be tomorrow? He can’t even concentrate on his career anymore. Let’s prioritize the protection of the players instead of exploiting them,” said Oyongo Bitolo.
Reportedly, the national football team of Cameroon ‘FECAFOOT’ has discovered that player Wilfried Nathan is not seventeen years old. The Indomitable Lions has declared that Nathan Doualla has been also excluded from the championship play-offs for double identity.
Nathan, the Victoria United midfielder’s license shows ‘Born on May 15th May, 2006” which is allegedly considered as cheating, on his age.
Being the youngest in the national team, he was an unused substitute in AFCON 2023, but became a prominent player for his unmatched showmanship and dance moves.
As per the sources, the foremost evidence of Nathan’s age fraud was presented by ‘Le Monde’ after a keen investigation.
The French media outlet ‘Le Monde’ has already met with the player in 2022 when he had a different name and age. The media outlet questioned FECAFOOT and asked did the team knew about tis but decided to hide it and skate on thin ice?
The soccer player Wilfried Nathan Douala was not known in Cameroon football until Dec 2023. While going through his technical sheet, that shows Nathan as 17 year old and plays for Victoria United, Limbe.
Le Monde met and took photographs of the player in Jan 2022. Back then, Nathan Douala was known as Alexandre Bardelli, and he had the same tattoos as he has at present. Then Alexander Bardelli encountered the player and said he was 21 years old.
According to the sources, FECAFOOT, on March 10, 2024, revealed that the player is sidelined from the playoffs for his double identity. As per further information, the Facebook page of Nathan was created in Dec 2023, after the revelation of the list of 27 players by Rigobert Song.
Before his call-up, Nathan had an Instagram page created in April 2016. The player’s name was changed twice on the page.
Furthermore, Le Monde met Nathan in Jan 2022 when he was playing for Orynx of Douala. The media outlet used a Face Match App, to detect similarities between Alexandre Bardelli and Wilfried Nathan Douala, which proved that both are the same person.
The facial scars and tattoos of both people were identified as the same. Photos of Nathan on social media from 2010 were used for the comparison.
Later, after the call-up, the Facebook and Instagram pages with the name Alexandre Bardelli were deleted.
Moeover, before the AFCON 2024 began, Le Monde doubted FECAFOOT for calling up a player with the double identuty but the team ignored it.