A former FC Barcelona player is accused of deceiving his new professional team by secretly sending his twin to play in his stead, a bizarre bait-and-switch that’s left the pro soccer world stunned.
Edgar Ié signed with the Romanian football club Dinamo București in February, but the team was baffled when he arrived speaking no English. Though Ié has Guinea-Bissau and Portuguese citizenship, he’s spent significant time in Spain, Turkey, France, and the Netherlands—raising doubts about why the player on the pitch could only speak Portuguese.
Still, the club let Ié, 30, play as they investigated. Ié took the pitch in five matches before club leaders, suspicious of his identity, asked him for his driver’s license to verify he was, in fact, the player who signed. Ié refused.
