The new Ali Dia? Lithuanian club duped into signing striker from his fake Wikipedia stats

Remember when Liberian striker Ali Dia managed to wrangle himself a Premier League appearance after getting his agent to pretend to be George Weah and ring up Southampton recommending him?

Well, the modern way to ‘do a Dia’ appears to be amending your Wikipedia page to include ludicrously made-up career stats and for French-Angolan striker Barkley Miguel Panzo, that appears to have totally paid off.

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The 25-year-old journeyman has just joined Lithuanian second division side FK Panevėžys and it appears the only scouting they did on him was reading his Wikipedia page.

“It appears that the player has played at high-level championships,” said a statement on Panevėžys’ website alongside a photo of a understandably happy, if slightly bemused that it actually worked, Panzo, when he definitely hasn’t.

Some of the other ridiculous claims on Panzo’s Wikipedia page that his new side fell for include:

• Scoring 45 goals in 36 games for Queens Park Rangers between 2010 and 2012. That definitely didn’t happen.

• Playing three times for Angola and scoring one goal during African Nations Cup qualifiers. Official records dispute this.

• Having signed “a sponsorship deal with a Swedish watch company Daniel Wellington”. Again, seemingly fake.

But Panevėžys have bought it all hook, line and sinker. “A footballer born in Paris began his professional career in England at the Queens Park Rangers club. In the 2010-2012 season, representing the QPR team in the Championship, B. Panzo played 36 matches with 24 goals,” continues a statement on their website.

The statement continues: “After that, the footballer had to play with Sarlat Marcillac, Moulins, Brevinois Foot, Les Sables-d’Olonne. In the 2016-2017 season, Mr Panzo fought in France’s second-best league (Ligue-2), where he defended the Orleans team’s reputation. The attacker scored 6 goals in a 21-match match at Orleans.”

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Nobody can seem to confirm any of these but they aren’t quite as bold as claiming he had a 1.2 goal a game ratio at QPR.

Of course, internet funny people jumped on this and on Friday afternoon Panzo’s page was amended to suggest he had in fact scored 345 goal goals for QPR before going on to score 9,999 goals for the New York Knicks before his entire page was then taken down.

The ruse, it appears, may have been rumbled even quicker than Ali Dia. Now excuse me while I go to edit my Wikipedia page.