Part 2: Football's most bizarre incidents
Masal Bugduv
One of the greatest hoaxes in the footballing world took place regarding a player, that didn't even exist. Two years ago a number of blog entries came to surface regarding a Moldovan whiz kid, Masel Bugduv. There were numerous online reports regarding the
player, press releases and even a Wikipedia page for the player. It was even said that Arsenal were looking to sign the sixteen year old kid, who was looking to break into the senior team. In fact all the publications were so believable that The Times included
the player in their top fifty rising superstars list and placed the player over Mesut Ozil. However when it was discovered that the player didn't really exist, almost every website and publication that had made a reference to the player was left feeling embarrassed.
It was later found out that the whole story was a work of Irish Pranksters. It was also believed that it was carried out as a targeted attack on lazy journalists who believe almost anything these days, without really doing the proper research that is required.
Maradona joins Spartak Moscow
In 1988 the Soviet newspaper Izvestia played its first ever April fool's prank. The paper claimed that the World Cup winner Diego Maradona was going to join Spartak Moscow for a whopping salary of six million dollars. However the western media being as gullible
as it went on to run the story by almost every possible person. The act of the western associated press caused Izvestia to later publish an apology stating that they were just playing a joke and hoped that everyone could see the humour behind their story.
Remi Gaillard wins French Cup
A well known French prankster Remi Gaillard, out did himself in 2002. When Lorient went on to win the Coupe de France the player ran onto the pitch in a Lorient kit and posed with the team on the podium, participating in the post match photo shoot and celebrations.
He even went on to pretend like he had scored the winning goal and didn't hesitate twice before participating in a handshake with the president at that time, Jacques Chirac. Remi has a YouTube channel dedicated to his antics; however he claims his act with
Lorient to be his all time favourite, considering he wasn't caught or thought to be an imposter for a significant amount of time.
Sven falls for fake Sheikh
In 2006, the England manager, Sven Goran Eriksson, was lured to Dubai to discuss a possible employment deal with a Sheikh in the country. The Sheikh stated that he was interested in purchasing Aston Villa and wished to appoint Sven as the manager. The Sheikh
went on to get crucial information out of Sven about the English team and even found out that the manager was at the meeting against the FA's permission. Things only turned out for the worst for the manager when it was discovered that the Sheikh was in fact
an undercover agent for the News of the World.
Tags: