Is Fan Zhendong really 16?

[redonix76]

If Dan says he's really 16 then i believe it. Also I have to agree that from all he photos I've seen he looks his age. My friend who is a woman is 6'0' and her husband is 6'4'. Their son at 5 years old already looked 10, now that he's 17 he looks 25 and is alerady 6'2'...it's scary really. Anyway, I not a huge fan of FZD but I agree that has allot of talent, probably more so than ZJK and ML. If he was really 22 or so, he would be allot more consistent and make less mistake than he does now. Therefore in my opinion, the way he plays and how he displays his experience, it shows that he's still young and needs more high quality matches to really take advantage of his talent.

 

[ttmonster]

Okay, a little bit of cultural awareness here . After the pic Dan posted, no way FZD is faking his age. The only difference could be because of Chinese following Lunar Calendar. Why not applaud somebody wholeheartedly who has hit it big fairly early !!!

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

Thanks for the photos strideforward. From those photos it is clear that a few years ago he was a young boy.

 

[Xavelha]

I'm coaching in a new club since summer, when i arrived, there was a guy who had the most spinny loop and service, as well as some beard and was taller than most of the guys I coach....well I discovered a week later he was 13.

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

I'm coaching in a new club since summer, when i arrived, there was a guy who had the most spinny loop and service, as well as some beard and was taller than most of the guys I coach....well I discovered a week later he was 13.

Is he Chinese too?

 

[Mr. RicharD]

Voice and matureness don't depict age for asians. I know plenty of young looking asian males that are all in their late 20's. I know here in the US many Chinese players have a younger age because of their legal documents. Many mistakes are made with birth certificates and visa documents. I know specifically that a 24 year old in China came to Canada and was declared 18 by legal documents. I wouldn't be surprised if FZD was in a similar situation. Age category aside it's about your legal age not your actual age in Asia.

 

[MegaZZ]

FZD age

I see absolutely no evidence that FZD is older than 16, the posts saying that he is 20 or more I would regard as wild speculation, hearing him talk and his face does indeed suggests he is a teenager. In China there are two ways of counting age, one is to count gestational age plus actual age (the months spent in the mothers womb plus the actual birthdays) and the other one is to follow your actual birthday (like predominantly in western countries). In practice this means that some Chinese say they are 17 (including gestional age) when they are actually 16!

Yes I also know that depending on the location born in China (particularly in small, poor rural areas) sometimes there is a mismatch of birth certificates mainly due to beaurocratic difficulties, however there are not many cases where the age discrepancy is more than 1-2 years.

Long answer short: I think he is 16 (about to turn 17), I can believe that he may be 17 about to turn 18 but more than that really is far fetched. Please produce more evidence if you are think he is much older than 17 (particularly those who say he is more than 20??)

 

[Mikeh.95]

Chinese players do tend to lie about their age, but who cares even if fzd is 18 it still makes him a monster!

 

[ollpong_GER]

as someone already said there is no reason to hide his age i just can agree. Why should China hide his age.. to demotivate all European players and show their superiority? I don´t think so..because they already know they got no opponents in europe and their plan is to build some trainingcenters in Europe with chinese coaches.. So to me it seems like they miss the international compare.. well there are international tournaments ofc,, but its always china who is winning.. and look @ their reactions when they won the team-wm in Germany... no happiness.. just a self-evidence. Sorry for the bad english, I did my best.

 

[paolo2422]

Its so difficult to be a Chinese player nowadays

You do well, the foreigners hate you.
You do bad, the Chinese hate you

Shame......

Indeed!

 

[skywalker]

Liu Guoliang said in recent TT Magazine interview: FZD's success in early age is impressive, however a long the way to be a real champ, he has to be mentally strong and overcome a series of challenge, LGL is worry because early success may not good for the development of FZD; LGL also said that Ma Long has a similar growing process as FZD, shown impressive performance between age 17~18, and experienced up and down before reaching current status.

Don't forget Waldner, he also shown his their talent in very early age, maybe not 16 but somewhere between 17~19.

 

[TableTennisAddict]

Hmmmm. I think he's really 16 years old. His voice is like a kid,

 

[Tom]

Hi guys, yes as Dan said I met Fan Zhendong when I went to China in the summer. We spent the evening out in Beijing with him and several other players from the area. He did seem to me that he was around 16/17 to be honest. Although his legs are huge and he behaves pretty mature I think this is quite normal in China, players are strictly trained to be mature and focused and their physical training is like no other!

It's well known that chinese players have often lied about their age but even though he did speak much English it did seem that when we spoke that he was around the 16-17 age.

Of course I don't know for sure but whatever his age he is one hell of a player........and I must say also very friendly guy who was great fun!