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Claim: Adekunle Gold was a football teammate of Mbappe’s.
Verdict: FALSE. Open source data reveals that Kylian Mbappe was six when he joined AS Bondy football academy and Adekunle Gold was 17. Furthermore, an interview with Punch newspaper indicates that Adekunle Gold was neither an academy football player nor a professional.
Full Text
Apart from the usual chit-chats social media users engage in, different aspects of a celebrity’s life have never been excused in the public discourse.
A Facebook user, Sunday Godpaid, wrote on his page that Afrobeats singer and songwriter Adekunle Kosoko (professionally known as Adekunle Gold and AG Baby) was a former football teammate player with France forward and Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) star Kylian Mbappe.
“So Adekunle Gold was Mbappe’s former teammate(?) Grace,” he wrote.
Attached to his post was an image of Mr Mbappe and his teammates dressed in AS Bondy jerseys meant for football academy players. In the picture, both the French forward and Adekunle Gold were circled to further depict being teammates.
As of Tuesday, Nov 20, 2023, the Facebook post attracted 108,000 likes and 5,000 comments, and was shared 789 times.
The reactions to the post were diverse. “Grace found the two of them.” Miller Sweetlife commented.
“Abeg talk (about) another thing. (We) know (that) this thing no go fit possible. So rest abeg.” Eseoghene Gift remarked.
However, due to the controversial sentiments that the post generated, we decided to verify it.
Verification
We found the image’s origin is linked to the Polaris Gramatnica book sale website.
On the website, the image is among the ones used by France Football to illustrate Mr Mbappe’s milestones as a professional footballer.
Britannica, a resourceful online encyclopaedia, informs that Mr Mbappe was born on Dec. 20, 1998. It also mentions that the French star was only six years old when he joined AS Bondy football academy.
Meanwhile, a Punch publication reports how Nigerian singer and songwriter Simi Kosoko, married to Adekunle Gold, celebrated her husband as he clocked 36 in Jan. 2023.
By inference, Adekunle Gold is 11 years older than the French star. This means that when Mr Mbappe enrolled in the football academy at AS Bondy at six, Adekunle Gold was 17 years old.
A close observation of the image shows the kid identified as the Afrobeats singer does not fit the description of a 17-year-old male.
Also, during a 2019 interview session with Punch over his affection for sports, Adekunle Gold acknowledged that he loves football and tennis. He, however, stated that despite his energetic participation in football, he believed his career path was music.
Although the Nigerian singer reminisced about his profound support for the Super Eagles in both the 1994 and 1998 World Cup editions, among others, there was no moment he identified himself as a one-time football academy player.
Although we contacted Adekunle Gold about the claim, he has yet to respond to our inquiry.
Conclusion
The claim is false. Significant details from open-source materials and a newspaper interview reveal that the Afrobeat singer was never a football academy player or a teammate with Mbappe.
