Joseph Minala interview: ‘If you Google my name, that’s still the first thing you’ll see’
“Sometimes, when people see me on the street, they say, ‘Is it really you? The guy everyone thought was 42?’ Maybe many see me differently because of what happened. But I never did anything wrong.”
Nowadays, big news stories stay on our screens for just a few hours before disappearing, forgotten. As the saying goes, today’s headlines are tomorrow’s old news.
It’s been over 12 years since Joseph Minala became caught up in one of football’s most unfair controversies, and even now, the former Lazio midfielder still feels its effects.
Back in early 2014, Joseph was on the radar of some of Europe’s biggest clubs like Manchester United, Juventus, and Paris Saint-Germain, all interested through his then-agent, the late Mino Raiola. His future looked very bright.
“I was the best young player in Italy,” he told SPORTbible, sounding confident, someone who never doubted himself, even when others did. “Everyone was talking about me.”
But just as his career was about to take off, a football website from Africa claimed his passport had been changed to make him 25 years younger, which would have made him 42. The story blew up on social media for weeks.
Joseph denied it all. Lazio even threatened legal action against those who questioned his age, and the Italian Football Association soon confirmed he was 17, just like his official documents said.
But the damage was already done.
“Even today, if you Google my name, that story still shows up first,” he says. “I’ve done many interviews and achieved a lot, but people always want to focus on that.”
Speaking from his home in Malta, Joseph opens up about a journey that tested him more than he ever imagined.
He talks about how the age controversy stayed with him, the personal struggles that nearly made him quit football when he was just 21, and his goals for the future as he recently turned 30.
More than anything, he wants to change how people see him—not just on the pitch but off it too.
When he was 15, Joseph flew for 11 hours from Cameroon to Rome, hoping for a trial with AC Milan promised by an agent, with his mother taking out a big loan to pay for it.
But when the person who arranged the trial didn’t show up at the station, Joseph realized he had been tricked.
Left without money, food, or a working phone, he was stuck at the station.
He told the police he wanted to go home, but because he was a minor alone, they took him to a hospital for checks, then placed him in a care home in Rome’s Torre Spaccata area.
That’s where, supported by the staff, he started playing amateur football nearby. His talent soon got noticed, and after trials with several Serie A clubs, including Napoli, he joined Lazio’s youth team.
With Mino Raiola spotting him on the rough pitches of Torre Spaccata, Joseph believed he could have a great career at the top level.
“Yes, I really thought it could happen,” he says about becoming a first-team player at Lazio.
Though other big clubs were interested, he chose to stay in Italy to develop. Lazio offered a long-term plan, and having recently settled in a new country, he didn’t want to move again.
“I thought, ‘Why leave now? Maybe it’s better to stay, focus on football, work hard and improve,’” he says. “Maybe Paris Saint-Germain would come back with an offer someday. That was the plan.”
Sadly, things didn’t go as hoped.
In February 2014, the African football website Senego.net accused him of pretending to be a teenager so he could play for Lazio’s youth team.
It said he changed his passport by 25 years, making him 42, and claimed he lied about his age to send money back home to Cameroon.
Joseph remembers when his agent told him about the story.
“He said, ‘Look, there’s something being said about you.’ I was surprised because I was already in Europe,” Joseph recalls. “I was going to school, playing football, competing, attending trials.
“No one had questioned my age before, no one had written anything like that. I was even training with the first team, and then this false story came out.”
The accusations led to an official investigation. He was questioned by the league’s prosecutor, and after three painful months, the Italian Football Federation confirmed he was indeed 17.
Joseph thinks the rumors came from people upset that he chose Lazio over Napoli, where he had tried out for two months.
“I had to prove myself,” he says. “I had to take tests that I shouldn’t have had to, just to show I was a normal boy who grew up normally. It was just envy and malice from some people.”
Looking back, he admits not addressing the claims publicly was a mistake.
“We thought it would blow over in a week,” he says. “Remember, I was at Lazio, a big club in Italy’s capital. All my papers were fine, so everyone was shocked.
“We didn’t take it seriously enough. I think that was our mistake. We thought it would just go away.”
But it never did.
The story has followed Joseph throughout his career. He believes it even stopped him from reaching the potential he showed as a teenager, even with a powerful agent like Raiola backing him.
“Of course,” he says, when asked if clubs were scared off by the bad publicity.
“People talked about my age, even though it wasn’t true. Mino Raiola was a big agent, representing stars like Ibrahimovic and Pogba. He has connections everywhere.
“Do you think they couldn’t find chances for me? So many times I was close to signing, only for a club to say they saw the news and didn’t want to get involved.”
It’s understandable he feels frustrated. The situation was out of his hands.
He trained with respected coaches like Simone Inzaghi but never became a Lazio first-team regular, even after scoring twice in the Coppa Italia Primavera final against Fiorentina shortly after the age story broke.
“If you ask coaches or players who worked with me, no one would say I didn’t deserve 5, 10, or 15 minutes in a match,” he says.
“But why I wasn’t given those chances? Nobody knows. I was the first to ask. ‘What did I do wrong? Why didn’t I get those minutes?’
“Whenever I went out on loan, though, I played regularly. Whenever I had a chance, I played.”
Joseph was with Lazio for seven years (2014-2021) but spent much of that time out on loan, playing for Italian clubs like Bari, Latina, Salernitana, and in China for Qingdao Huanghai.
Despite the ongoing shadow of the age claims, his biggest challenge came in 2017 when he almost quit football at just 21.
While on loan at Salernitana, Joseph’s father passed away, and it shook him deeply.
“Many don’t know this,” Joseph says. “After my father died, I wanted to stop playing football for good.
“I was playing for Salernitana and did everything I could to make them want to get rid of me. I wanted them to say I did something wrong and cancel my contract.”
He was struggling to handle the loss of a man who meant everything to him.
“Mental health was tough,” he adds. “My father was my world. I couldn’t train without hearing his voice in my head.”
But at his lowest point, Joseph found a reason to keep going. He thought about his mother and his big family back home.
“One day, I looked at my mother and thought of everything she had been through,” he recalls. “I told myself, ‘Maybe God has another plan for me.’ I have brothers and family who count on me. I need to keep going.
“That’s what kept me going. I didn’t have time to think about everything else because I had so many responsibilities.”
Joseph also thanks Angelo Fabiani, Salernitana’s former general manager and current Lazio sporting director, for understanding what he was going through and not ending his contract.
For Joseph, football has always been bigger than just personal success. Growing up in a big family, he knew early on that his skills could help those closest to him.
After losing his father, that feeling grew even stronger.
“At that time, I had to focus on football because it’s a gift from God,” he says. “It has helped me support my family.
“I have 10 brothers. Not one, two, or three—ten. So my family is huge.
“I lost my father, and the responsibility was all on me. I was taking care of my family through football from a young age. I never really had someone who could say, ‘Joe, maybe you should do this differently.’
“There were people around me with their own interests. They just wanted to take whatever they could from me.”
This shows the pressure Joseph faced, especially when his name was being talked about for reasons unrelated to his football.
Today, he still supports his family through football, playing for Maltese Premier League club Marsaxlokk FC, in a small fishing village in southern Malta.
Joseph hopes he can help Maltese football grow.
“In my small way, I want to help people see Maltese football differently,” he says. “Maybe a big-name player or talented youngster will see me playing here and think, ‘If Joseph is here, maybe it’s a good place to go. Let’s check it out.’
“I hope, with God’s help, to stay healthy, keep helping my family, and just take life one day at a time.”
There will always be questions about how far he could have gone without that controversy. He made only a few appearances for Lazio’s first team before playing in Malta with Sliema Wanderers, Gżira United, and now Marsaxlokk.
But Joseph doesn’t want to waste time wondering “what if.”
“I’ve made mistakes too, but you can’t change the past,” he says. “I’m not the kind of person who sits and thinks, ‘What if?’ I’m just thankful for everything I’ve been through and that I’m still here today.
“I still have chances, especially now, because it’s hard to find a club, play football and get a contract. I’m lucky to be in this position. I’m healthy, I sleep well, and I try my best to support my family. That’s what matters.”
His career didn’t turn out exactly as he or many others imagined when he first came onto the scene. But for Joseph, there are more important things.
“After all I’ve been through, I see things differently,” he concludes. “I try to learn from every experience, good or bad. I take the lessons and keep moving forward. That’s who I am.
“I don’t waste time worrying about the past because I know I can’t change it. Life isn’t a movie where you can rewind and do everything again.”