A Brazilian man who turned 126 years old last week is thought to be the world’s oldest man.
According to The Telegraph, Jose Aguinelo dos Santos was born on July 7 1888 only two months after slavery was abolished in Brazil. He was born to African slave parents.
The bachelor who never married or had any children still walks without the aid of a cane, eats four meals a day and has no health problems despite being a pack-a-day smoker for the last 50 years.
Dos Santos was already a pensioner when Queen Elizabeth came to the British throne and if his birth certificate is indeed accurate he would have been 62 when Brazil hosted the last World Cup in 1950.
He told Brazil’s G1 website that there is no secret to living a long time.
“If I got to this age it’s because I’ve lived a lot, that’s all,” he said.
His old age home intends to prove that he is the oldest man in the world through ‘Carbon-14’ dating but are trying to find ways to navigate around the R237 000 price tag.
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