Ivorian footballer Malick Yalcouyé falsely accused of lying about his age

Malick Yalcouyé scored his first goal for Brighton on August 30, one of the first games that the 20-year-old Ivorian footballer has played for the team. Shortly thereafter, he became the target of baseless rumours that he is lying about his age. During the match, social media users started posting comments on football pages, claiming that Yalcouyé is older than 20, based on his appearance alone. One X user asked the AI Grok to determine Malick Yalcouyé’s age based on this photo taken during the match between Chelsea and Brighton on August 30, 2026. © X.com © X.com Photos from the archive posted by his junior club So what is going on with these accusations? People suspicious about the real age of African footballers playing in Europe isn’t new. In French, there is even a pejorative term: a "présus" is a player who is allegedly being passed off as younger than he is. Even though there is a history of this happening in a number of African countries, there are also lots of players who are falsely accused. In Yalcouyé’s case, his youth club ASEC Mimosas in Abidjan came up with an innovative plan to combat the rumours. They dug into the archives to find photos documenting Yalcouyé’s phys...