​How I Fooled Bulgaria and Signed for Two Premier League Teams

This article originally appeared on VICE Sports UK.

Two years into his tenure at Tottenham Hotspur, the moment had come for Harry Redknapp to leave a lasting mark in the history of the storied North London club. In the summer of 2010, Spurs were on the verge of their first ever Champions League group stage campaign; Redknapp would need something special to take the next step.

But the gaffer was calm; he knew his squad featured a player who could lead Spurs to success. He had watched him for years, was fascinated by his speed, shooting and technique. But this wasn't Gareth Bale, with five top-flight seasons under his belt; it was me, and my career in England had just begun.

Okay, not really: it was all a lie. But that didn't stop plenty of people from repeating it in print and online.

When, five years ago, I first checked the quality of Bulgarian sports media, my motives were driven more by narcissism and less by a genuine desire for research. At that time, playing FIFA's 'Be a Pro' mode occupied at least four to five hours of my day, and I had formed a devastating duo with Dimitar Berbatov. Thanks to some of the leading sports publications in Bulgaria, this dream could become a reality, even though I was a long way from being of professional standard.

In August 2010, I sent an email to the editors of Sportal.bg, the most popular Bulgarian sports site, titled 'Slavia Sofia talent to go on trial with Tottenham'. According to the email, which consisted of three sentences, Harry Redknapp had personally watched videos of 16-year-old Bulgarian star Peter Georgiev and was so impressed he decided to invite him for a two-week trial.

It seemed absurd for me to think that information received from an incredibly suspicious address would be published by any reputable website. Nevertheless, half an hour later Sportal.bg ran a leading story about my success.

It was a brilliant start to my virtual football career.

Of course, my impressive achievement couldn't have gone unnoticed. It didn't take long for this article to spread to other sports media, which I hadn't even contacted directly. By the next morning, the Meridian Match newspaper published in print the exact same piece by copying the entire text from Sportal, which was in fact a copy of my own email. Soon after, Blitz.bg also ran the story and cited Meridian Match as the primary source. (Meanwhile, Tottenham did indeed qualify for the Champions League group stage – Harry Redknapp must have been very satisfied with my performances).

After four very quiet seasons at White Hart Lane, a few Saturdays ago I decided it was time for me to change the course of my football career. This time, with an improved strategy, I tried to earn myself a transfer down the table to Newcastle United. I needed 10 minutes to fake a Tweet from an unofficial Newcastle page (@ToonArmy_News0), which announced that the club had signed 20-year-old Bulgarian talent Peter Georgiev from Tottenham's under-21 team.

I took a screenshot of the fake post and sent it to five Bulgarian sports media outlets, using the same suspicious address, and also attached a link to Sportal's article from 2010, which was still available online. Once again, Sportal along with Novsport.bg and Topsport.bg ran the story almost immediately while Football24.bg did so the next day. Topsport even referred to me as Peter Dimitrov even though such family name didn't exist in any of my emails. Subsequently, my name appeared in Blitz (again), PlovdivNews.bg and Chernomore.bg.

Nearly all of these media took down the article after I revealed my experiment the following Monday. However, none of them apologised to their readers or explained that their editors had been misled by something as simple as a fake Tweet.

While the whole thing was pretty harmless, the results teach a lesson in handling user-generated content. The incredible volume of information about football circulating online has created a seemingly insatiable desire for readers to consume more and more news on a daily basis. To fulfil that desire, online media artificially maintain the constant flow of news – some of which can be speculative, misleading, or completely incorrect – and regularly suffers from a total lack of standards. As such the breathing of life into a dead story doesn't seem that surprising.

The deeply entrenched habit of many Bulgarian editors to neglect the filtering of content has caused significant damage to the reputation of their publications. This case should serve as a reminder for all journalists that they must develop an immunity to false information and not be sucked in by it.

As for me and my virtual football career, I'll perhaps need more time to establish myself as a star in the Premier League. Strikers like Jamie Vardy and Charlie Austin worked for years to complete a rise from non-league football to the English elite. However, it seems that there is a simpler way. Perhaps in 10 years, when I decide to retire at Barcelona, I will try to push that deal through online and see whether any lessons have been learned.

@GeorgievPeter