It's 10 years ago today that the Masal Bugduv story unravelled!
But it had a good run to be fair and ended up in some high profile places. From humble beginnings, the Moldovan football prodigy made it onto The Times' list of Top 50 Rising Stars to watch! Indeed he was listed at No 30 above Mesut Ozil and Robert Lewandowski who went on to have great careers.
Such was his standing in the game, Bugduv - "Moldova's finest" as The Times entry described him - was "strongly linked with a move to Arsenal".
The only wee problem was young Bugduv didn't exist. It turned out that the fake 16-year-old was the brainchild of Galway-based Declan Varley. It was all part of a clever hoax to test the waters of the transfer gossip columns.
And as The Times list showed, it worked out better than Varley could have dreamed of. In fact, Sky Sports even mentioned him and former Manchester City manager Mark Hughes was asked about him in a press conference. Harry Redknapp also got asked about him.
M'Asal Beag Dubh
On the 10th anniversary of the 2009 hoax, Varley joined me on Team 33 to discuss how the story grew legs.
"I wanted to make a point about how far a fake player could fly if he was invented," he said.
With a fake name derived from an Irish story by Padraic O'Conaire called M'Asal Beag Dubh (My little black donkey in Irish), a fake Wikipedia profile and mock Press Association stories, Varley had enough to start with.
But how did it get as far as it did and how did the hoax unravel? How did The Times react and what does it say about football journalism and transfer gossip columns? And what recognition has Bugduv received in the many years since?
You can watch the full interview above on YouTube and you can listen back on the podcast player. This week's studio chat with our regular panel will be podcasted tonight. It'll feature the Spygate story so feel free to vote in our Twitter poll:
🕵️♂️⚽️ #0011
We'll be back tomorrow with our next show. We'll chat to the Galway man behind the 2009 Masal Bugduv hoax! 📻🇲🇩
And we'll also talk about the furore behind the Bielsa/Leeds/Spygate stuff!
What's your thoughts on that one? #LUFC #DCFC #LUFCvDUFC #Bielsa
— Newstalk Team 33 ⚽️ (@teamthirtythree) January 14, 2019
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