Talk:Mikael Ndjoli

Mikael Ndjoli date of birth dilemma
Motherwell have now put up a profile on their website of new signing Mikael Ndjoli, and it lists his birth date as 8 October 1997, different in every variable from the date we list of 16 December 1998. The latter date is the one listed on Soccerbase and his profile on the official Premier League website, and ties in with the fact that when he signed on loan for Gillingham last year he was described (by the club and the BBC report) as being 20, and the club posted on social media wishing him a happy 21st on 16 December last year. So I contacted Motherwell and got a reply from the club's Head of Digital and Communications, which read "Mikael's correct date of birth is 8 October 1997, as verified by the player. We noticed the 1998 date of birth on Wikipedia previously, but 1997 is correct". How to proceed - assume he is definitely right, change to the 1997 date and put a hidden note in explaining that other sources are wrong..........? -- ChrisTheDude (talk) 08:33, 20 January 2020 (UTC)
 * His profile when he was at Kilmarnock also had 8 October 1997.
 * According to the article and confirmed on the FA registration lists, he took up a scholarship with Millwall in 2014. A December 1998 birth would still have been 15, which is below school-leaving age so too young to start a football scholarship. And AFC Bournemouth signed "18-year-old Ndjoli" in July 2016 – consistent with an October 1997 birth.
 * I know we can't use primary sources for dates of birth and the like, but I've never seen the harm in using them to tell which of two reliable secondary sources can't be correct. Birth records show a Bongil Ndjoli-Michael, which may or may not be the same person as Mikael Bongili Ndjoli but almost certainly is, registered in Camden in October 1997, and no-one of similar name born in 1998 or registered in 1998 or 1999.
 * Maybe copy this thread to the article talk page and put a hidden note pointing to it? cheers, Struway2 (talk) 11:09, 20 January 2020 (UTC)