Masal Bugduv is a fictional Moldovan youth footballer who was the subject of a hoax. He was created by Irish journalist Declan Varley as a social experiment.

History

With a fabricated backstory describing a teenage prodigy on a web of blog postings, evidently created by different people, reports of the youth talent were ultimately published in a The Times article titled "Football's top 50 rising stars",[1][2] as well as in When Saturday Comes and Goal.com.[3][4] As a means to establish credibility to the identity, the creators of the hoax planted text into Wikipedia articles and forged Associated Press reports.[3][2] The erroneous information remained in Wikipedia from July 2008 to January 2009.

The entry in The Times read, "30. Masal Bugduv (FC Olimpia Bălţi): Moldova’s finest, the 16-year-old attacker has been strongly linked with a move to Arsenal, work permit permitting. And he’s been linked with plenty of other top clubs as well."[3]

The Times later removed Masal from their list and published a clarification.[5] Goal.com printed an apology for the mention of "phantom prodigy Masal Bugduv", stating the information had come from "a fake Associated Press report."[6]

Masal Bugduv sounds very similar to the Irish pronunciation of M'asal Beag Dubh (My Little Black Donkey), a story by the Irish-language writer Pádraic Ó Conaire about a dishonest salesman who seeks an exaggerated price for a lazy donkey.[7] John Burns of The Sunday Times suggested that the Ó Conaire story was indeed the inspiration for the entire hoax, and that the prank, which also included a fake Moldovan newspaper titled Diario Mo Thon (Diary My Ass), was in effect a satire on the football transfer market.[8]

Brian Phillips, a blogger of Runofplay.com, described in an article for Slate the anatomy of the hoax,[2] featuring a testimony email of "the alleged hoaxer's lengthy explanation of the Bugduv-creation process".[9]

In 2017, Irish journalist Declan Varley revealed that he created Bugduv as a social experiment, frustrated by having to sieve through countless speculations about football transfers.[10]

See also

References

Wikisource has original text related to this article:
  1. ↑ Dart, Tom, The Times (12 January 2009). Football's top 50 rising stars Archived 29 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  2. 1 2 3 Phillips, Brian, Slate (23 January 2009). Fictional Moldovan Soccer Phenom Tells All Archived 27 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  3. 1 2 3 Burnton, Simon, The Guardian (15 January 2009). "Masal Bugduv – the 16-year-old Moldovan prodigy who doesn't exist". TheGuardian.com. Archived from the original on 6 September 2016. Retrieved 17 December 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  4. ↑ SoccerLens.com (15 January 2009). The curious case of Masal Bugduv Archived 21 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ↑ typepad.com (January 2009) The times online clarification Archived 22 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  6. ↑ Goal.com (4 September 2008). WCQ Preview: Europe - Group 2 Archived 19 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  7. ↑ Runofplay.com (15 January 2009). The literary origin of the Masal Bugduv hoax Archived 21 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  8. ↑ Burns, John, The Times (18 January 2009). "Discovering an extra ass on the pitch is just a pain in the net".{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  9. ↑ Slate: sidebar (23 January 2009), Alleged hoaxer's explanation of the Bugduv-creation process Archived 26 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  10. ↑ Smith, Rory (16 July 2017). "Football transfer speculation – the original fake news". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 29 March 2018. Retrieved 29 March 2018.
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