Basketball: Player paid $500k fortune as Flamengo mistake him for Wolves footballer
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Former Flamengo basketballer Joao Victor Gomes da Silva was paid S$495,700 by the club after he was mistaken for his footballing namesake (pictured).
PHOTO: AFP
RIO DE JANEIRO – A 19-year-old Brazilian basketballer feared that he was being scammed when his former club Flamengo paid him US$366,000 (S$495,000) in a case of mistaken identity this week.
The payment should have gone to his footballing namesake, Joao Victor Gomes da Silva, as part of the 22-year-old’s recent transfer from Flamengo to English Premier League side Wolverhampton Wanderers.
The incident scared the younger Gomes, who once played for Flamengo’s basketball team but had left in 2020. He discovered the error while he was on his travels.
“I was scared because I didn’t know where the money came from,” he said, explaining that he feared someone might be using his account to launder money.
“I hadn’t even seen it, I was travelling with my godmother. It was when I got home that my mother texted me asking me about some money sent.
“I thought someone had the wrong deposit or something. My godfather also said that I had to be careful because someone could be using my account to launder money.”
Flamengo are reported to have contacted the Federal Court of Rio de Janeiro, which blocked the deposit, acknowledging that the money did not belong to the basketball player.
According to website Sports Witness, the court said: “It appears, prima facie, that there was a serious error on the part of Flamengo in transferring a large amount of which the athlete Joao Victor Gomes da Silva, the different person, his namesake, is the beneficiary.
“Therefore, as a logical corollary, the obligation to return the amount deposited by mistake, in protection of objective good faith and to avoid unjust enrichment.”
Now playing at amateur level, Gomes has promised to pay the club back.
“I’d like to settle that as soon as possible,” he added.
The footballer Gomes scored the winning goal on his debut for Wolves on Feb 11 after a £15 million (S$24 million) transfer in January, netting in the 87th minute of their 2-1 Premier League victory over Southampton. AFP
