The Phantom Menace: Who is Arsenal Target Masal Bugduv?

The stand-up guys at SoccerLens have surpassed themselves with a brilliant piece of investigative journalism, unveiling what they termed “the curious case of Masal Bugduv.”

Without wishing to reveal too much, and encouraging readers to visit SoccerLens and read the article for themselves, we would like to offer you a teaser to this story as provided in the article.

With this is mind, please note that the following information comes as a direct quote from the SoccerLens article.

“On Monday, The Times published a list of ‘Football’s 50 rising stars’. Tucked away in the rundown was this:

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“30. Masal Bugduv (Olimpia Balti)

“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.

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“This sounded vaguely familiar. Sure enough, Bugduv was mentioned in an article in the January 2009 issue of When Saturday Comes magazine. A piece by Mark Gilbey on the effects of the Transdniestria separatist movement on the Moldovan football scene concludes:

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“Amid nationalist strife in Moldovan football there is one bright spot on the horizon, in 16-year-old midfield prodigy Masal Bugduv, whom many predict will soon be playing his football in a major European league. Best of all, he has no connection to any breakaway regions.

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“The Offside linked to the Times‘ list in their Daily Dose. Underneath was a comment by a reader called makki, who said that there was a mistake in the Times‘ feature:

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“30. Masal Bugduv (Olimpia Balti)…

“Such player doesnt exist, it is fake

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“Hmmm.”

To read this rest of the article, click here.