Jonathan Nicola, the star high school basketball player in Canada who is under investigation for possibly lying about his age, claims that the misunderstanding is due to him not knowing his age.
Nicola was a star player for Catholic Central Secondary School in Windsor, but he was arrested at the Canadian border and has been held by immigration since April 15. He was traveling to the US with his team when border services were alerted that his fingerprints matched that of someone who tried to make a refugee claim in the US, The Toronto Star reports.
According to information shared at a hearing, Nicola’s visa application and passport to Canada listed his birthday as Nov. 25, 1998. However, his documents for the US listed his birthday as Nov. 1, 1986.
Nicola says the issue is his mother never told him his birthday.
“I always keep asking what is the specific age that I was born, and she has told me that she could not remember,” Nicola said at a recent hearing.
“Over (in South Sudan) . . . not every year we study . . . we always keep moving to different schools, and over there, they do not ask your age. They do not ask you nothing,” Nicola said.
If Nicola’s story hardly seems believable, it’s for good reason. He applied for a visa to the US in Nairobi that was denied in April 2015. He was applying to enter the US on a full scholarship. Does it seem at all suspicious that six months later he headed to Canada on a student visa to attend a school on a full scholarship?
The question is how did Nicola get his documents to play ball in Canada. He says he met someone who helped him with his application.
Nicola’s high school coach thought the 6-foot-9 athlete who was supposedly in 11th grade had a chance to go pro.
