News that Adelaide United had managed to lure two internationals to South Australia must have been welcome news to supporters. News that one of them doesn’t actually exist must not have been.
Last Wednesday, Portuguese Fabio Ferreira and American Dexter Rosales were announced to be coming to Adelaide to trial with the Reds. Both have impressive rap sheets with Ferreira being a former Chelsea player and Rosales being linked to several clubs on different continents.
According to a July 24th article by BigPondSport.com, Rosales played with “Dutch champions Ajax and Spanish heavyweights Valencia as former clubs.
“The 25-year-old supposedly enjoyed stints with Argentine giants River Plate and Colombian side Club Atletico Junior at youth level, while representing the United States at Under-17, Under-20 and Under-23 level.”
Not bad, you might say. Too good to be true, more like it.
Ferreira really is a Portuguese national who played for Chelsea. Rosales… well, apparently, doesn’t actually exist.
That’s right, United offered a trial date to a phantom player.
And according to the club, not only is this fairly ‘normal’, they claim to not be the only club to be had by the hoaxers.
A club spokesman has stated: “We’re not the first club to be given a false lead with a supposed trialist, but other clubs probably just don’t promote it to the world like we did.”
And looking at the guy’s resume, it’s easy to see how a professional sporting club could be fooled.
The guy’s resume looked flawless, detailing him playing for Ajax with, according to The Advertiser, a medical report declaring minor injuries. That’ll do! Let’s send him an invite to trial!
How Adelaide United could even begin to not only laugh this off but allege ‘it could happen to anyone’ is ludicrous. In what other profession are a resume and a single medical report enough to warrant sending an overseas invite?
How about birth certificates, passports, photo ID, voice confirmation on the phone? What about contacting former employees for verification?
Or what about a very common and easy to do practice amongst newly dating teenage girls and googling your new man? Doing so would have revealed a now deleted Wikipedia article detailing an incorrect birth date to the documentation Adelaide received and pictures of an Ajax player by the name of Rosales but with a first name of Mauro, not Dexter.
These are very easy common practices conducted by every professional enterprise. If other clubs had been conned by the incredible Rosales, I am more than willing to believe that. We all receive phoney spam emails, but not everyone opens and then replies to them. And not everyone makes an offer to the spammer to join them or discuss business.
Adelaide’s actions here reveal some worryingly unprofessional practices. And while supporters and the club will move on very quickly and write this off as a minor mistake, it should prompt some serious conversation about how a cavalier attitude towards inviting strangers into club change rooms is a bad idea.
In the short-term it makes you look like a real turkey, for one thing. And it is not a good look for a club who has already failed to re-sign key player Marcos Flores. Not to mention sending the wrong signal on a league which already has some identity issues.
In short, Adelaide United look like dills for trying to sign a non-existent player. But it’s a mistake that should not be laughed off.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, a Nigerian prince has informed me they have mistakenly deposited $1m into my bank account, and needs my bank details to correct the mistake. Seems legit.
Facts in this article are can be referenced by author upon request.
Dora
Guest
Excellent, what a web site it is! This webpage gives useful facts to us, keep it up.
Pacer
Guest
Still the biggest signing in the history of the league. Kosmina was too stupid to utilize him properly-and then he went back to Vasco in Brazil and scored 11 goals in 7 games in teh Serie A in Brazil-which is alot better standard thanthe A-Leaague. Work that one out. With regards to signing this DJ-this is just another huge stuff-up in the history of the new owners of AUFC,
Bondy
Guest
Ouch.
Kasey
Guest
I love the irony of someone from the Central Coast ripping on Adelaide for being ‘inbreds and so on’ and then demonstrating a complete lack of understanding of basic grammar. Here’s a tip gyppo, if you’re gonna have a go, make sure you yourself are above reproach.
DIngo
Guest
Funny article Damo, I think I will change my name to sound a bit Latin and see if I can get a gig. Gonzales La Dingo should do it....... now where did I put my shin guards? :D
Swampy
Guest
Nothing can beat George Weah's cousin as alluded to above. -- Comment left via The Roar's iPhone app. Download The Roar's iPhone App in the App Store here.
Bondy
Guest
Camshaft your arguing with Fuss ,thats funny GCSons on the other thread is almost identical to you and by reading the patterns of the threads here their very similar circumstances and behaviour to The Cattery, I remember the Cattery and Fuss would argue on a thread for significant lengths and nothing has changed with gcs and now Camshaft .
Fussballs AFL tracking spreadsheet
Roar Rookie
The AFL tracking spreadsheet strikes again!
Camshaft
Guest
I think that shows that giving away free tickets doesn't make any difference. You either want to go or you don't. Can you be bothered takling at least 5 hours out of your day if you are not really interested. I'm going up to the Gold Coast next month, so I'll put this 'free ticket' thing to the test and see if I can find someone dishing them out.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
"Would you go to an AFL match if you were given a free ticket?" It depends ... If a mate has a corporate box & a group of mates are invited - yup, I'm up for a party in a corporate box! But, in all other circumstances I'd give the ticket away. I've watched enough VFL/AFL from early 70s-early2000s & thoroughly enjoyed it. Some great afternoons at suburban grounds during the 80s. But, now, I'm totally over the sport - the haphazard interpretation of rules, the game stops every 30-45 seconds, most games are over by half-time, etc.
Camshaft
Guest
Gonna have to plead ignorance on the tv ratings, don't really understand how they are calculated or really care. I think they are using him to get the little tackers involved and not really as a ratings booster. Would you go to an AFL match if you were given a free ticket?
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
Not an unusual story - if you pay attention to the news, identify fraud is one of the fastest-growing crimes in the world. With modern technology it's not difficult to create counterfeit documents. In relation to Hunt & Folau - I could pass them in the street & I wouldn't recognise them. Hasn't Folau spent 50% of the season in the reserve team? Probably don't need to talk to Andy re: Folau's impact - just need to review the FTA TV ratings (attendance data is fudged by the free tickets that are handed out). AFL FTA Tv ratings in Sydney (average) 2011: ~37k; 2012: ~37k I'm no statistician, but I reckon that amounts to insignificant change since Folau has been playing.
Camshaft
Guest
Come on Fussball - you've got to admit that this Adelaide United story is a ripper. Have you ever seen Hunt & Folau? Two awesome looking sporting specimens. They are there as promoters of the game primarily, and from all accounts doing a hell of a job. You'd have to talk to big Andy to find out whether they have been worth the money, but the AFL has loads of it, so no big deal. What's the saying - "you've got to speculate to accumulate".
Stevo
Roar Rookie
Meanwhile Curtis Good has signed for Newcastle United - hey hey, Heart generating the Good news!
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
Camshaft How's this for comedy... Two blokes - Hunt & Folau - can't play Aussie Rules but they are given contracts to play in the best AFL competition in the world. And, apparently, with ZERO skills these blokes are paid more than blokes, who have played ARF all their lives. That's pure comedy GOLD. How desperate is ARF for publicity & players that they hire unqualified & unskilled labour ... and try to sell it as the best AFL competition in the world!
Titus
Guest
I'm having trouble splitting it with the AFL and their thousands of imaginary players story.
Stevo
Guest
Don't under-estimate the complexity of getting your timezones correct :)
Camshaft
Guest
Damo - gee this is funny and is now my favourite story for the year. The poor game can't take a trick in this country.
dasilva
Guest
Here is a post by "mcjules" on the FFT board who summarised an interview with Kosmina on radio "I listened, talked about the Rosales thing he said: * An agent he knew for a long time and trusted recommended him * He called Rosales (had his phone number) and what he said matched what they had heard about him * Told Rosales that if he wanted to trial he is welcome to pay his own way and if he's any good they'll reimburse him * Decided to tell everyone what they were doing to keep things open * People started telling them he was a fraud * Called him back, when he questioned the guy about it he got defensive but Kossie said if he wants to come down and prove himself he's still welcome." So essentially the Dexter guy is still welcome for a trial in Adelaide despite forging his CV. This is interesting although I doubt the trial will still be going ahead and I believed that Dexter probably tried to get Adelaide to pay for the trial
c
Guest
grrrrr mid :(