Twin soccer players in Romania may have pulled a ‘Trading Places’

Allegations in Bucharest have spawned one of the most bizarre stories the world of soccer has ever seen. It’s been alleged that former Portugal back Edgar Ié, who rose to prominence playing for Barcelona might have sent his twin brother Edelino Ié to play in his place when he was transferred to Dinamo Bucharest back in February.

Rumors of the identity switch began in early May when things about Ié simply weren’t adding up. Not only did the player Bucharest sign not really play like Edgar Ié, but members of the media noted that he was unable to speak English. It was their belief that Edgar could speak English, learned in his time playing in Spain, France, Netherlands and Turkey — but the man in front of them didn’t understand the language at all.

This went to an entirely new level when Florin Prunea, Dinamo Bucharest’s general manager, realized that the club might have been duped by the Ié brothers.

“It seems surreal. I wondered if I was still sleeping! I started making phone calls, talking to friends and the news is true, I can’t believe it. Nobody denied it. I found out that he has a twin brother who also plays soccer.”

It wasn’t long before more people began digging into the story that Bucharest might have fielded the wrong player. Romanian journalist Emanuel Roşu claimed in a now-deleted tweet that the team asked Ié to present identification to prove he was in fact Edgar, but that the team was rejected. Ié was benched shortly after due to poor play, despite being one of the highest-paid players on the team with a salary of 20,000 euro per week.

Dinamo Bucharest began circling the wagons and went on the attack. They characterized the reports as slander, and threatened legal action against local journalists who reported on the alleged player switch.

“It is a fake, slanderous and cancerous attack against the club.”

The reason for such a strong reaction? Fear. The reason the club signed Ié was to pull the then-15th place club out of the risk of relegation. The team managed to avoid being sent down, but if it was found that they knowingly fielded a different player than they reported the team could have been docked the eight points they earned while Ié was on the roster — or potentially relegated as a penalty.

There would be no way for Dinamo Bucharest to prove they were knowingly duped, putting the matters in the hands of Romanian soccer’s governing body. To complicate matters, Ié was released, and is believed to have returned to his native Guinea-Bissau.

We might never get a real answer to this, because nobody in a position to unearth the truth has any motivation to do so. Dinamo just want to move on and forget about this whole thing, and any admission by either Ié brother would end their footballing career(s) in disgrace. So we’re left with just one of the wildest rumors sports have seen — and one that will last forever.