Carlos Alberto played for a number of small clubs before joining Figueirense in 2003 and said none of them, nor Brazil, knew about his age.

Brazil has had several cases of age fraud in the past, usually involving players attempting to jump down an age group at the start of their careers.

The most famous involved former Brazil and Real Madrid coach Vanderlei Luxemburgo who spent most of his career, including two years in charge of the national team, with a birth certificate giving his first name as Wanderley and his date of birth as May 10, 1955.

Luxemburgo, whose real date of birth is May 10, 1952, later confessed that the certificate was fake and said his late father had obtained it for him when he was a teenager.

In October 2001, a court agreed to cancel the fake certificate and Luxemburgo turned three years older at the stroke of a pen.

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