Noe Baba

**Closed Account** · 20/02/2013, 11:00 AM

I played with his brother when he first came to Ireland. Noe came along to watch some training sessions, think he was 11 or 12 at the time, was tiny. Trained with Noe last year when he was 15, certainly didn't seem any older.
Hard to stop the rumours going round though. I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt although I'm from Castlebar so maybe a little bit bias.

**DannyInvincible** · 20/02/2013, 12:46 PM

Originally Posted by joe_denilson

I played with his brother when he first came to Ireland. Noe came along to watch some training sessions, think he was 11 or 12 at the time, was tiny. Trained with Noe last year when he was 15, certainly didn't seem any older.
Hard to stop the rumours going round though. I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt although I'm from Castlebar so maybe a little bit bias.

They're just ignorant rumours based on absolutely nothing but idle speculation mixed, I would suspect, with a dose of envious begrudgery and a pinch of veiled/casual racism for good measure due to his west African descent/suspicions surrounding Nigerian players.

**Charlie Darwin** · 20/02/2013, 12:49 PM

Originally Posted by joe_denilson

I played with his brother when he first came to Ireland. Noe came along to watch some training sessions, think he was 11 or 12 at the time, was tiny. Trained with Noe last year when he was 15, certainly didn't seem any older.
Hard to stop the rumours going round though. I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt although I'm from Castlebar so maybe a little bit bias.

This is much better anecdotal information. It's not uncommon for kids to have big growth spurts around his age, and lower nutrition levels in Africa could explain why he was small.

**Sullivinho** · 20/02/2013, 1:07 PM

'Magnetic resonance imaging'? pffft. Time to cut this lad's leg off and count the rings.

**paul_oshea** · 20/02/2013, 1:12 PM

Originally Posted by DannyInvincible

They're just ignorant rumours based on absolutely nothing but idle speculation mixed, I would suspect, with a dose of envious begrudgery and a pinch of veiled/casual racism for good measure due to his west African descent/suspicions surrounding Nigerian players.

We were suspicious of big lads from around brigids when we were growing up too!!

Nothing to do with their racial background!!! And they were a different race as far as we were concerned!!

**tetsujin1979** · 20/02/2013, 1:32 PM

Originally Posted by paul_oshea

We were suspicious of big lads from around brigids when we were growing up too!!

Nothing to do with their racial background!!! And they were a different race as far as we were concerned!!

so it was something to do with their racial background?

**paul_oshea** · 20/02/2013, 1:59 PM

Same race tets, different breed!

**hoops1** · 20/02/2013, 2:39 PM

[QUOTE=DannyInvincible;1664130]They're just ignorant rumours based on absolutely nothing but idle speculation mixed, I would suspect, with a dose of envious begrudgery and a pinch of veiled/casual racism for good measure due to his west African descent/suspicions surrounding Nigerian players.[/QUOTE

Anybody that knows anything about schoolboy football in this country would tell you thats not true. But why come on and argue differently and fear being labelled a racist.

**DannyInvincible** · 20/02/2013, 10:27 PM

Originally Posted by hoops1

Anybody that knows anything about schoolboy football in this country would tell you thats not true. But why come on and argue differently and fear being labelled a racist.

What's not true? I think you've misunderstood me. I'm assuming you're referring to Ireland. I wasn't accusing anyone in Ireland of casual/veiled racism as I'm not aware of anyone in Ireland spreading defamatory rumours. I was referring to the comment from an Arsenal fan on reddit that Charlie posted in post #135. The Arsenal fan asserted that Baba's "birth cert is dodgy as ****" without the scantest bit of evidence to suggest something is amiss. I suspect such an accusation was driven by prejudice.

**osarusan** · 21/02/2013, 11:58 AM

Originally Posted by DannyInvincible

They're just ignorant rumours based on absolutely nothing but idle speculation mixed, I would suspect, with a dose of envious begrudgery and a pinch of veiled/casual racism for good measure due to his west African descent/suspicions surrounding Nigerian players.

Does your suggestion of casual racism come from anything stronger than the idea that he's black and they're ignorant, so it must be racism?

**DannyInvincible** · 21/02/2013, 12:18 PM

No, it's not as simple as that. I just think the rumour makes a rather lazy association; along the lines of "Baba is a big west African and looks excessively-developed for his age, and we all know about those west Africans when it comes to corruption/dodgy dealings/dodgy birth certificates..." or a similar sort of thinking. That's just my suspicion and why I perceive it may be a case of casual racism.

Would a British-born player who appears to an eye otherwise ignorant of the facts to be "too big for his age" be subjected to the same allegation? I doubt it.

**osarusan** · 21/02/2013, 12:29 PM

Originally Posted by DannyInvincible

No, it's not as simple as that. I just think the rumour makes a rather lazy association; along the lines of "Baba is a big west African and looks excessively-developed for his age, and we all know about those west Africans when it comes to corruption/dodgy dealings/dodgy birth certificates..." or a similar sort of thinking. That's just my suspicion and why I perceive it may be a case of casual racism.

Would a British-born player who appears to an eye otherwise ignorant of the facts to be "too big for his age" be subjected to the same allegation? I doubt it.

There's no evidence from the quote from Reddit that the poster knew anything about corruption/dodgy dealings/birth certificates, is there?

If a British-born player (or, for that matter, a white player from anywhere with a record of dodgy birth certs and corruption) was subjected to the same allegation, what predjudice would you suspect the poster of holding?

**DannyInvincible** · 21/02/2013, 1:01 PM

Originally Posted by osarusan

There's no evidence from the quote from Reddit that the poster knew anything about corruption/dodgy dealings/birth certificates, is there?

The poster did state Baba's "birth cert is dodgy as ****". Where would he get an idea like that, considering there's absolutely no evidence to suggest there is an issue with Baba's birth certificate? Possibly from a prejudiced opinion of descendants of west Africa? Maybe not, but it just looks like lazy speculation tinged with a very casual form of racism to me, primarily based on the reputation of west African administrative bodies.

If a British-born player (or, for that matter, a white player from anywhere with a record of dodgy birth certs and corruption) was subjected to the same allegation, what predjudice would you suspect the poster of holding?

I'm sure I'd find something!

In seriousness though, it's not likely a British-born player would be subjected to the same allegation, is it? Such a scenario is unlikely to ever arise as such prejudice would be extremely rare, if not non-existent, in the first place.

With regard to a white player from anywhere with a record of dodgy birth certificates and corruption, I may well suspect prejudice (of a xenophobic nature) if the defamatory accusation was plucked out of the poster's arse because his friends thought the player concerned looked "big for his age".

Just going along with the allegation for the sake of argument, I'm not sure when or how the birth certificate of Baba would have been falsified, but then I'm not in the know. If the birth certificate was indeed falsified, would it not have been long before the prospect of Baba becoming a professional footballer ever looked likely; say, before Baba's family even migrated in Ireland and Baba acquired Irish citizenship? What would have been the motive of his parents in procuring forged documents then? Are the FAI suspicious? Have they performed tests? What about the Irish government that issued Baba his citizenship? Were there doubts there? It's more likely that Baba's development/growth spurt is simply down to genetics, no?

**osarusan** · 21/02/2013, 1:44 PM

Originally Posted by DannyInvincible

It's more likely that Baba's development/growth spurt is simply down to genetics, no?

Of course it is.

Originally Posted by DannyInvincible

The poster did state Baba's "birth cert is dodgy as ****". Where would he get an idea like that, considering there's absolutely no evidence to suggest there is an issue with Baba's birth certificate? Possibly from a prejudiced opinion of descendants of west Africa? Maybe not, but it just looks like lazy speculation tinged with a very casual form of racism to me, primarily based on the reputation of west African administrative bodies.

Maybe the Reddit poster's friends are bitter at having been beaten by his team and are talking sh!t, or maybe they simply think Baba is just too big for his age, therefore his birthcert is dodgy.

**DannyInvincible** · 21/02/2013, 2:07 PM

Maybe, we can only speculate.

**paul_oshea** · 21/02/2013, 3:41 PM

He who speculates....

**Closed Account** · 21/02/2013, 3:42 PM

Let's be clear about this, Baba is no manchild. I'm 5'11'' and he's shorter than me. I watched him play for the Ireland U17s last year and he looked quite short for a center half out there.
He's succeeded because he's a natural footballer. His father I believe was very good also.

Here's a picture of him at 14 with similiar ages lads.