The Bucharest allegations have produced one of the strangest stories in football history. The former Portugal defender, Edgar Hié, who rose to fame with Barcelona, He may have been replaced by his twin brother Edelino Ie when he moved to Dinamo Bucharest in February..
Rumors of a change of identity began in early May when things didn’t quite add up for Ye. Not only did Bucharest’s signing not play like Edgar Ye, media personnel pointed out that he couldn’t speak English. They believed Edgar could speak the English he learned while playing for Spain, France, Holland and Turkey, but the man in front of them didn’t understand a word of English.
Things reached a whole new level when Dinamo Bucharest general manager Florin Pournea realised the club may have been duped by the Ye brothers.
“It doesn’t seem real. I thought he was still sleeping! I made some phone calls and spoke to friends and found out the news was real. I couldn’t believe it. No one denied it. I also found out he has a twin brother who plays football.”
Many quickly began investigating the rumors that Bucharest may have fielded the wrong player. In a now-deleted tweet, Romanian journalist Emmanuel Roche claimed that the team had asked Ye to show ID to prove he was Edgar, but he refused. Despite being one of the team’s highest-paid players at €20,000 a week, Ye was quickly benched due to his poor performance.
Dinamo Bucharest tightened their defense and started to attack. They considered the report defamatory.and threatened legal action against a local journalist who reported on the alleged substitutions.
“This is a false, slanderous and malicious attack on the club.”
The reason for such a strong reaction is fear. The club signed Ye to save the club, which was in 15th place at the time, from relegation. The team avoided relegation, but if it was discovered that they had deliberately used different players than those reported, they could have lost the eight points they had earned during Ye’s time at the club, or even been relegated as a penalty.
There is no way to prove that Dinamo Bucharest deliberately deceived and the matter will now be in the hands of Romania’s football governing body. To complicate matters, Ie has been released and is believed to have returned to his native Guinea-Bissau.
We may never get any real answers to this, as those in a position to uncover the truth have no incentive to do so. Dynamo just wants to move on and forget about this, and if either of the Ye brothers were to admit this, their footballing careers would end in ignominy. So, what we’re left with is one of the wildest rumors in the history of sports, and one that will stick around forever.
