From the comments of previous posts saying "insignificant football message boards", here is a commnet from bbc website:

Several media outlets were left red-faced after tipping Moldovan international Masal Bugduv as football's next big thing only for it to emerge that the player does not exist - a web of blog postings had created the player out of nothing. (Guardian)

Shall we have a go?

You'd think 'Dickov' would have been a wind up over the years

found a couple of links, like the quote:

Goal.com would like to apologise for any confusion over the snippet of information we published over phantom prodigy Masal Bugduv, who is apparently as elusive as a home win at Stamford Bridge recently. We received information from a fake Associated Press report, and we are sorry to pass this on. Still, unlike some publications we did not even begin to imply that we had watched him play - merely that he was in a provisional squad list and was attracting attention, as per the (forged) AP report.

http://www.thespoiler.co.uk/index.php/2 ... n-existent


http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/20 ... oax-player