Agyemang-Badu recounts how teammate fearing age cheating asked him to wear his jersey or FIFA would take U-20 World Cup trophy

Former Ghana international Emmanuel Agyemang-Badu has recounted how his Black Satellites teammate asked him to put his jersey back on after taking it off to celebrate Ghana’s penalty victory over Brazil to clinch the 2009 FIFA Under-20 World Cup.

Agyemang-Badu buried the decisive penalty to give Ghana a historic win as the first African country to win the Under-20 World Cup.

Ghanaians erupted with joy, the players ran all over the pitch, and amid the jubilations, Agyemang-Badu, who had just scored the winning penalty took off his jersey.

Fearing that Agyemang-Badu would be investigated for age cheating, his teammate who was just behind him prompted him to put on his shirt back.

I remember after scoring the penalty, I removed my shirt during the celebrations, and Opoku Agyemang, who was right behind me while I was running, shouted at me to put my shirt back on, or else FIFA would take back the trophy.

Footballers, especially those from this part of the world, are often accused of age-cheating using what is termed as “football age.” But for the 33-year-old there was nothing like that in his case since he used his actual documents throughout his career.

I don’t have a football age because I’m using the details on all my documents. If you’ve got any other age, you can bring it out to prove me wrong.

Agyemang-Badu played 78 times for the senior national team and played for several clubs across Europe including Udinese, Verona, and Bursaspor. He later returned home to play for Accra Great Olympics.

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