French and German football has been rocked by claims that Nice star Youssoufa Moukoko is four years older than he claims to be by the man he thought was his dad.
The attacker, who is on loan from Bundesliga giants Borussia Dortmund and started in Rangers’ 4-1 win over the French side in the Europa League last month, is registered as being 20-years-old and born on November 20, 2004 in Yaoundé, Cameroon. However that has now been disputed by a man who previously claimed to be his father, in a documentary aired on German TV channel ProSieben, where he says that the twice capped German international was actually born on July 19 2000 – more than four years earlier than registered.
In the documentary, titled ‘Tricks, Cheating, Deception – The Million Dollar Business with Football Talents’, Joseph Moukoko – who had previously said he was the players’ father – claims he got the forward a false birth certificate and forged documents to increase his chances of making it in the professional game – and even signs a legal document declaring under oath that Youssoufa is not his son, and was not born in November 2004.
In the shocking documentary Joseph confessed to falsifying documents to present Moukoko as his son and reduce his official age, saying: “We did it so he could have better opportunities in European football.” Youssoufa, who has played 99 times for Dortmund’s first team and won the under-21 European Championships with Germany in 2021 – was one of the country’s brightest young talents, becoming the youngest debutant for Germany since Uwe Seeler more in the 1950s when he made his bow in 2022 and then becoming the youngest German player ever to feature in the World Cup, aged 18 years and 3 days at Qatar 2022.
The claims deepen in the documentary, where Joseph says he was in partnership with a major Dortmund sponsor. The 73-year-old continues: “My wife was employed by an agency that works for BVB’s sponsor Evonik, and I was employed directly by BVB. That’s how we received money every month. We didn’t work. We got the money that way.” Joseph says that he received a contract as a video analyst and scout shortly afterwards, initially paying 10,000 euros, and then 20,000 euros a month.
Moukoko played 68 minutes of Rangers’ 4-1 victory at the Allianz Riviera last month before being substituted and has scored twice in his 13 outings for the club so far – both in an 8-0 rout against St-Etienne. He has 17 goals in 18 league starts and 58 substitute appearances for Dortmund to his name.