Soccer Extreme : It’s usually a tough task to trace transfer rumours back to the source. Not so with the rumour linking Real Madrid’s dread-locked Dutch left winger/left back Roysten Drenthe with a move to Liverpool. Because that particular rumour started on Facebook. And was completely fake.The good people at COS originally spotted what appeared to be a Drenthe Facebook update claiming:
“I will soon be joining Liverpool Fc . Hope i will have a good season there :)”
However…. That update was July 15th, on a Facebook account that was opened July 13th, and has only been updated three times in total. It’s also pretty unlikely that a 23 year-old professional footballer with a relatively high profile would be dumb enough to have his Facebook profile open for everyone to see, or that any self-respecting person would ever use smiley faces without a heavy dose of irony. Or that anyone could manage to capitalize the “F” but not the “C” in the name of the club they are supposedly joining.
There are also multiple “Royston Drenthe” accounts on Facebook, which can’t all be real, unless Drenthe has some sort of short term memory problem like Guy Pearce in Memento and keeps opening a new Facebook account every day.
Last but not least, Drenthe’s agent today confirmed that the transfer rumour was a hoax, telling BBC Sport that Drenthe isn’t even on Facebook:
“Royston does not have a Facebook page, a Twitter page or a MySpace page. We will be taking legal action against the person who set up this false Royston Drenthe account.
“Royston is definitely staying at Real Madrid. He is happy there, he has spoken to the club directors and is looking forward to the new season at the Bernabeu.”
Some good news though: The Offside is very much on Facebook, where we are 100% real and promise to never ever use smiley faces without irony. (theoffside)