The recently sacked coach of Cyprus side Omonia Nicosia Neil Lennon sparked a debate about the age of Nigeria international goalkeeper Francis Uzoho before his departure as coach.
Lennon was relieved off his role as coach following the 0-1 loss to Nea Salamis three days ago, but his comments in the post match conference after Uzoho’s heroics in the 0-1 loss to Manchester United has remained a hot topic in Cyprus. It was meant to be an illustration but it has since taken another dimension.
Lennon while speaking on the goalkeeper’s performance spoke about the fact that he is still in his developmental stages as he is just 23 that although he looks a bit older than him despite the fact that he is 51 years old.
“We are just trying to make him grounded and I know he is only 23, even though he looks older than me, but I want him to be more patient because of the form of Fabiano. I am so happy for Uzoho because he is a very talented goalkeeper”, he said last week.
The media in Cyprus jumped on the discussion and made it a hot topic by digging up previous post as way back in 2018, when he first appeared in the limelight. They even added some posts made by Nigerians on the subject of his age.
However it’s worthy to note that, it isn’t the first time that he has been in the eye of the storm over his age, but one key point to note is that he was a part of the Nigeria U17 team that won the 2013 U17 World Cup and was as at then one of the youngest in the team.
He even passed the magnetic resonance imaging test (MRI) on a very good grade hence making rubbish of all doubts about his true age, which only surfaced after his rise to the role of first choice of the senior national team of Nigeria four years ago.