City duped into deal with a dud
‘Promising winger’ nabbed for crime
Cape Town City look to have been among a number of international clubs duped by a fake footballer who was arrested in Denmark this week for robbery.
Bernio Verhagen‚ supposedly a promising 25-year-old right-wing from the Netherlands who had trained at several top clubs‚ was signed by the Premier Soccer League club in August but quickly turned out to be useless and the club let him quietly leave to avoid embarrassment.
But it turns out City are among several club that signed the conman‚ including Dinamo Auto Tiraspol in Moldova‚ Audax Italiano in Chile and Danish club Viborg‚ where he was unmasked this week.
According to club spokesperson Julian Bailey, City owner John Comitis signed Verhagen on the advice of a “well-trusted international agent” just before the start of the new season in August.
“It turned out to be someone imitating the agent. Unfortunately we had done the paperwork but luckily no money had been paid‚” he said.
Verhagen trained for just two days with the first team before it was obvious he was not up to standard and sent to play with the reserves.
His arrival was trumpeted by the club on social media but he quietly slipped away after just six weeks‚ going to Chile.
He has been arrested for an alleged hold-up outside a train station in the Danish town after a charge of fraud had been laid against him by Viborg.
Comitis’ signing of players without consulting his coach Benni McCarthy was one of the major causes of the fallout between owner and coach over the last month before the mentor’s departure and will be a source of much embarrassment now that the true story behind Verhagen has come to light.
It exposes a common practice in South Africa, where owners and chairpersons sign players without consulting their technical teams.