(foto: uradna spletna stran kluba)
An incredible news story is emerging from Romania about a scandal involving the fake identity of a player from Dinamo Bucharest.
Over the past weekend, Romania crowned a new champion, FCSB (formerly Steaua), securing their first title after nine years of waiting. While the country’s biggest club celebrates its return to glory, another major Bucharest club, Dinamo, finds itself in a completely different scenario, entangled in a scandal that could even lead to relegation to the second league.
In February, Dinamo Bucharest strengthened its squad with defender Edgar Ie. However, some Romanian journalists have discovered that all this time, it was actually his twin brother Edelino who played for Dinamo, who has a significantly lower reputation in the football world than his brother.
Edgar Ie was once a promising defender who even played for Barcelona's reserve team and later for major European clubs such as Villarreal, Lille, Nantes, Trabzonspor, and Feyenoord. Romanian journalists were immediately surprised by the fact that Ie, despite such a diverse international career, does not understand English, as Edelino Ie, Edgar Ie's brother, has never played outside Portugal.
The deception was confirmed by Dinamo's former president Florin Prunea.
"It sounded like a joke. I started checking and the information is true. Incredible. No one has denied it. I found out that Edgar Ie has a twin brother who also plays football," said Prunea.
If the official investigation by the Romanian Football Federation confirms the fraud, Dinamo faces a deduction of eight points, which, considering their current position in the standings, could relegate the club to the second league.
Edelino Ie accumulated 240 minutes of play, appearing in a total of five matches.