10 footballers who look older than they actually are

If time travel was possible, it would be one of these guys who would be the first one to get noticed. Now, age is a factor that matters a lot when a player is looking to get a new contract; I mean, isn’t that how Galvin Harris secured a contract with Real Madrid in Goal 2?On a serious note, not everyone ages in the same way, and these 10 footballers seem to have aged a lot faster than the rest of us. In this slideshow, we have compiled a list of 10 footballers who look far older than they actually are:

#1 Charlie Adam

Stoke City midfielder Charlie Adam is 29 years old, but looks nowhere near that. Since making his professional senior debut for Rangers in 2004, the Scot has been playing for 11 years now, but frankly, it feels like a millennium.

#2 Hendry Thomas

Hendry Thomas is a defensive midfielder from Honduras who has played for Olimpia, Wigan Athletic, Colorado Rapids, and currently plays for MLS side FC Dallas. As much as it is surprisingly to believe, Thomas is just 30 years old, and is only a few months older than Ashley Young!

#3 Joseph Minala

The star of our list, Joseph Minala, aged just 18, was accused of being a lot older than his stated age earlier this year by a Senegalese website, Senego.net who claimed that the player had confessed he would be turning 42 this August. The website had even threatened Lazio, his club, to release Minala’s birth certificate in order to prove the player’s actual age.

#4 Diego Costa

Would you believe me if I said that Diego Costa is two years younger than Lionel Messi? Well, he is. Costa, aged 26, has also faced allegations over his age. Even his Chelsea teammate, Eden Hazard had joked about the Spanish striker’s age last year, stating, “He looks old, I think he’s old. He is 25 but I don’t know if it is true.”

And, to be honest, Costa does look old.

Dad takes his son to football for the first time... pic.twitter.com/HB9lIl3KNL

— Footy Jokes (@Footy_Jokes) September 18, 2014

#5 Romelu Lukaku

Everton striker Romelu Lukaku has always looked older than his real age, and most of it is due to his stocky, physical build up. Standing at 6’4 and weighing over 90 kgs, Lukaku is a 22-year-old who pretty much resembles 36-year-old Didier Drogba.

#6 Gokhan Tore

Gokhan Tore is as old as Bayern Munich’s Mario Gotze. Yes, it might not look like that, but the Besiktas midfielder is just 23 years old. Don’t let his war-veteran look deceive you.

#7 Jay Spearing

Bolton skipper Jay Spearing made his debut for the Liverpool senior team back in 2008, when he already looked like a veteran who has been there, and done that. Aged just 26, Spearing still has almost a decade of football left in him unless we have yet another curious Benjamin Button-esque case here.

#8 Joshua Brillante

Australian midfielder Joshua Brillante who plays on loan for Empoli from Serie A side Fiorentina is just 22 years old. It is worth noting that he looks much younger clean-shaved.

#9 Jeremy Toulalan

Jeremy Toulalan looks like he has been in and around football for ages now, having made his professional debut in 2001. The 31-year-old may look much closer to his age now, but this is how he has been looking for years now too, so there’s that.

#10 Christian Benteke

The 24-year-old Belgian striker is a monster, and that is what his Aston Villa teammate Fabian Delph believes.

“He's an absolute monster. Everyone's tried to rough him up but they've all failed," Delph told BBC Sport last year. "I asked him when he came: 'Do you eat raw meat?'. But the reality is he's just a natural monster.”

If that’s not it, Benteke’s physical attributes has also been summarised by BBC’s Rob Gurney who said, "It's only when you stand in the tunnel at close quarters, as I did at Villa Park following Monday night's Sunderland game, that you realise what an imposing physical specimen Christian Benteke is, and what fear he must strike into even the most self-assured of defenders.”