15-Year-old Nigerian Actually Holds Guinness World Records in Football, PRNigeria Fact-Check Reveals
A 15-year-old Nigerian, Vincent Okezie, is actually a recipient of Guinness World Record in football, a PRNigeria fact-check has revealed.
The fact-check confirmed a widely shared Facebook post which claimed that one 15-year-old Vincent Okezie had won a football Guinness World Record, but later became a mechanic due to lack of sponsorship and supports from the government and the public. https://prnigeria.com/2023/05/22/vincent-guinness-world-records/
The claim was widespread after a Nigerian chef, Hilda Bassey Effiong, popularly known as Hilda Buci, broke the Guinness World Record for longest cooking hours.
Hilda broke the record, which was previously held by Indian chef Lata Tondon. Tondon had made meals for 87 hours, 45 minutes and 00 seconds.
To investigate the social media claim of Okezie’s feat, PRNigeria conducted a keyword search and the result revealed that Legit has published a similar story of the unhelped 15-year-old boy who was said to have won multiple Football Guinness World Records, but later deleted it as the link is not opening.
In August 2022, Guinness World Records published on its websites that an Abia 15-year-old Vincent Okezie alongside Richard Kipo achieved “the most over and underpasses of a football (soccer ball) with feet touching in one minute.”
The post containing the claim has, at the time of carrying out this fact check, generated 51k likes, 4k comments, and 2.1k shares.
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Meanwhile, PRNigeria further discovered that Vincent’s name appeared on Most transfers of footballs (soccer balls) spun on the finger in 30 seconds (team of two); the “Most consecutive passes of a football (soccer ball) between the head and soles while balancing on the back of a person” in March 2022. He was also named with Victor Richard Kipo in the “the most football (soccer) ‘around the world’ tricks with arms linked (team of two) in March 2023.
In another investigation, PRNigeria detected a video wherein the boy in question spoke about his uncelebrated football strides.
He said, “My name is Okezie Vincent. I won Guinness World Records four times, and nobody in Nigeria has celebrated me. Now, I am working as an apprentice in a mechanic workshop because there was no opportunity for me to pursue my football career.”
Okezie was seen displaying his football talents that earned the certificates in the footage that is enjoying massive sharing on social media platforms.
While there is a discrepancy regarding the number of records attributed to him, Okezie, in a widely shared post, was seen holding five Guinness World Records certificates.
Based on the facts gathered by PRNigeria, Vincent Okezie has won the Guinness World Records on different occasions.
However, some of the winning acts were performed with other Nigerians, namely Victor Richard Kipo, Chukwuebuka Ezugha,
Therefore, PRNigeria concludes that it is TRUE the claim that Vincent Okezie won Guinness World Records on Football Acts, even though most occasions with other young Nigerians
It is also discovered that he was not widely celebrated by the media and personalities, as was the case with Nigerian Chef Hilda Baci.
By PRNigeria
