How France soccer player almost fell prey to scam transfer

Updated: 09 Feb, 2025 • 0 • min read

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How France soccer player almost fell prey to scam transfer

Bastia midfielder Julien Maggiotti has revealed he almost fell prey to a deadline day transfer scam orchestrated by a fake sporting director.

Earlier in the week, the 29-year-old believed he was set to join Bundesliga 2 side Eintracht Braunschweig.

With the transfer window closing at 6 PM, he needed to act quickly to travel to Germany.

In the final hours on the deadline day, the midfielder was on his way from Paris to Germany to complete a loan move when he realised he had fallen prey to a scam.

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Speaking to L'Equipe, Maggiotti said:

We are on the route between Orly and Roissy with my agent, and then we realise this is not legitimate. The thing is, everything happens in just a few hours.

My agent, through a contact in Germany, conducted further investigations and discovered that Eintracht Brunswick had never shown interest, and this was all a fabrication.

Although he and his agent were able to identify the deception in time, Maggiotti remains shaken by the events.

It happened to me, but I wouldn't wish it on anyone. People say footballers have it easy, and it's true, but what I experienced was still very hard.

During those hours of waiting, it was hard. You ask yourself a lot of questions. You say to yourself, "What did I do to deserve this?" But I don't blame anyone. It happened to me, that's all.

Reports indicate that for several weeks, a man posing as Benjamin Kessel, the sporting director at Braunschweig, had been gathering information using his German phone number.

The fake official reportedly attempted similar tactics to scam players from Guingamp, Ajaccio and Nancy.

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