The Guardian reports that the fakery was first spotted by a Russian poster at The Offside. (The poster called The Times’s slip-up ‘a very fanny misteak’.) Soccerlens then took up the investigation and discovered that an unknown hoaxer had, for reasons unknown, littered the web with references to the fake player.

Masal Bugduv is by no means the first fake footballer to fool the press. The Times made a similar error in 1999, when they announced that Liverpool’s Gerard Houllier was set to sign French under-21 international Didier Baptiste for £3.5 million. Baptiste was a fictional character from the Sky One soap opera Dream Team, where he played for made-up team Harchester United.

In 2003 The Observer reported that Leeds United manager Peter Reid had invited a player called Ernest Gund for a trial. Gund, they reported, was an Austrian under-21 international striker, and top scorer with his side DSV Loeben. He was also reported to be Austria’s sexiest sports personality, and a host of websites dedicated to the player illustrated his popularity.

Unfortunately for Peter Reid, and for the journalists who ran the story, Ernest Gund didn’t exist. He was actually a character in popular football computer game Championship Manager, and the websites listing his statistics, likes and dislikes, and diary arrangements were hoaxes, initiated by an Everton fan called Neil Clegg.

But my favourite tale of a fake footballer involves that font of all football knowledge Graeme Souness. In 1996, the then Southampton manager received a call from Liberian legend George Weah. The caller recommended that Souness take a look at his former Paris Saint-Germain teammate, a Senegalese international footballer called Ali Dia. Only the caller wasn’t George Weah, and Ali Dia wasn’t a footballer.

But Souness fell for the scam, and invited Dia over for a week-long trial. Dia was registered to play, but missed a chance to impress in a reserve game against Arsenal when it was postponed. With the trial coming to an end, Souness decided to put Dia on the bench for a Premiership clash with Leeds. After an hour, an injury forced Souness to make a substitution. Ali Dia got his chance.

Unfortunately, it soon became clear that Dia was not a real footballer. A thoroughly unimpressed Souness subbed his sub ten minutes later. But Souness refused to be red-faced. ‘I don’t feel duped in the slightest,’ he said. ‘That’s just the way the world is these days.’

(As a postscript, Souness later paid £8 million for Jean-Alain Boumsong, who was perhaps even less of a real footballer than Ali Dia…)

For more made-up footballers and general soccer shenanigans you should probably read my book Balls: Tales From Football’s Nether Regions.