Timor Leste player was once suspected of cheating on age in the match against U23 Vietnam

 Timor Leste player was once suspected of cheating on age in the match against U23 Vietnam

Paulo Domingos Gali da Costa Freitas (Paulo Gali), the main player in the match against U23 Vietnam in the semi-final of U23 Southeast Asia 2022 on the evening of February 24, was repeatedly suspected of age cheating.

Paulo Gali is considered an outstanding player of U23 and the Timor Leste national team over the years. After qualifying for the AFC U23 Championship 2022 and AFF Cup 2020, Paulo Gali continues to be the leader of U23 Timor Leste to compete in the 2022 Southeast Asian U23 tournament. Up to now, he has scored a goal to help the team beat Brunei in the group stage. .

Over the years, Paulo Gali has been repeatedly reflected by the Southeast Asian media about the problem of being too old when appearing and shining in youth tournaments. At the 2019 AFF U15 tournament, the Straits Times (Singapore) page accused Paulo Gali of not being a player under the age of 15, even though his birth year on paper was 2004.

U23 timor leste is an old man 1

Paulo Gali (No. 21) was repeatedly accused of age fraud. Photo: Nguyen Khang.

According to this site, if Paulo Gali was born in 2004, it would be even more difficult for him to make his debut for the Timor Leste national team at the AFF Cup 2018 when he was 14 years old and started two matches in the group stage. On the electronic version of the AFF Cup that year, Paulo Gali appeared in the registration list with the year of birth 1996, while in the registration list, Paulo Gali was born in 2004.

Maniam Pachaiappan, the head coach of Malaysia U15 at the time, said: "I know Paulo Gali has two identification cards". Singapore, Myanmar and Indonesia also joined in and sent documents to the Southeast Asian Football Federation (AFF).

The rules of the tournaments of Southeast Asia do not require verification of the age of the player by bone density measurement. However, in the face of complaints from the teams, the AFF opened an investigation and concluded that Paulo Gali was eligible to attend after reviewing the medical documents and reports.

Since then, Paulo Gali has participated in most tournaments of Southeast Asia to date.

In the 2022 Southeast Asian U23 semi-final, Paulo Gali was a dangerous trigger, repeatedly pressuring and threatening the U23 defense of Vietnam, but not once succeeded. He and U23 Timor Leste stopped after losing 3-5 in the penalty shootout.