Twenty years ago today, a then-little known Ali Dia pulled off one of the greatest cons the beautiful game has ever witnessed. We’re sure you all know the story, but we’re going to tell it again anyway.
Down and out after failing to make a name for himself in Germany and France, the Senegalese striker headed to England but was rejected trials at Gillingham, Port Vale and Bournemouth.
Seemingly with nothing left to lose, Dia went impostor – claiming to be George Weah’s cousin, a Senegal international and a former youngster at PSG.
He even got a university friend to impersonate Weah in a phone call to then-Southampton manager Graeme Souness, who completely bought the mock former World Player of the Year’s story and handed Dia a one-month contract.
Then came the moment of truth as injuries and a cancelled reserves match saw Dia claim a spot on the bench for a Premier League clash with Leeds United.
But the story gets even better – Dia actually made it onto the pitch, where his lack of footballing talent became painfully evident, leading Souness to sub him off again before cancelling his contract.
Nonetheless, Ali Dia remains arguably football’s greatest ever impostor. So in honour of twenty years since his all-time con, here’s nine more imposters – some accused, some genuine – for you to feast over.
Renato Sanches
It certainly wasn’t his fault, other than the fact he’s outrageously talented for such a young age, however many didn’t believe Bayern Munich’s new star was only 19 after his transfer to the German Champions. Accused of lying about his age by French coach Guy Roux, Sanches quickly clarified the rumours with proof of his date of birth.
Didier Baptiste
‘Liverpool Set to Sign £3.5 million AS Monaco star’, read the headlines. What the newspapers failed to clock on to however was that that ‘star’ – one Didier Baptiste – was a character on the popular football themed TV show Dream Team. It wasn’t until Gerard Houiller mentioned he’d never heard of the player that the media spotted their mistake.
Masai Bugduv
Dreamed up by an Irishman bored of the unreliability of the media, Masai Bugduv was the fictional forward who went from one (possibly drunk) Irishman’s head to The Times’ ‘Top 50 Rising Star’ list within a matter of months. The supposed Moroccan forward was also set to move to Arsenal, work permit permitting of course. Even though he was indeed fake, he probably still would have been a better forward than Yaya Sanogo.
Alessandro Zarelli
The ‘Hit and Run’ conman of football impostors, Zarelli winged himself wages and free accommodation with a number of clubs including Bangor City and Lisburn Distillery (who?) before running off with the cash before you could say Lisburn Distillery (again, who?). An Ali Dia of the Valleys and furtive fellow of the highest order, he famously featured on the Sky TV show ‘Super Fakes’ in 2006.
Incredibly, Zarelli is actually a footballer, albeit not a very good one, currently plying his trade with Teversal FC in the tenth tier of the English pyramid.
Taribo West
You’d think it would be difficult to lie about your age, but apparently not in the world of football. Taribo West allegedly subtracted a whopping 12 years onto his age as he told porkies when signing for a number of clubs including Plymouth Argyle, for whom he had little success. West had told The Pilgrims he was 32, but the club actually believed him to be 44. Surely the zimmer-frame gave it away?
Fernando Torres
I just couldn’t help myself. However, I am 99.9% certain that the Fernando Torres who moved from Liverpool to Chelsea for £50million was indeed his twin brother/doppelgänger and that the real Fernando Torres was and probably still is sitting on a beach somewhere sipping sangria. Admittedly, evidence of said theory – barring a DNA test – is proving quite hard to come by, and probably won’t be much consolation for Blues supporters who endured the Spaniard’s incredible fall from grace.
Sir Alf Ramsey
World Cup winning manager Sir Alf allegedly forged his own documents to make himself two years younger, by changing his date of birth from 1922 to 1920. Apparently he thought he would be too old for a job after the second world war and made himself younger, although it later came to light that it was complete nonsense and Sir Alf’s reputation remained unharmed. Not sure anyone would have cared anyhow – he did win England the world cup after all.
Carlos Henrique Kaiser
Friend of Romario (pictured) and Renato Gaucho, Carlos Henrique used his highly impressive social skills to sneak his way onto the payroll of a number of Brazilian and European clubs by pretending to be a professional footballer. Feigning injury whilst keeping an athletic build and the personality of a footballer led to the Brazilian not playing a single match in a career that spanned several years and nine different clubs – not least including Fluminense, Botafogo and Flamengo.
Mexico 1988
The Cachirules Scandal, as it was better known, saw Mexico u-20s field four overage players during an international match, and led to the whole country being banned from any tournament run by FIFA for two years. The investigation was the reason Mexico were absent from the 1990 World Cup and the football tournament at the Olympics two years earlier. It also saw eleven Mexican officials banned from the beautiful game for life.