Dreams for Sale: Inside the World of a Fake Football Agent

From Cyprus to Senegal, Alexey Mirontsev has sought to swindle dozens of players. The Sports and Crime Briefing reveals a carefully constructed social media fantasy.

Alioune had been scammed before.

The first time, he flew from Senegal to Azerbaijan on the promise of a professional football trial. When he arrived at the gates of a club in Baku, duffel bag in hand, the coaches told him they’d never heard of him. The “agent” who arranged the trip had already pocketed several thousand euros and stopped replying.

By luck, the club’s coach took pity. He gave Alioune a trial anyway. To everyone’s surprise, the young Senegalese midfielder earned a contract.

So when a new message landed in Alioune’s Instagram inbox in late June, promising another shot at Europe, his guard was up.

The sender introduced himself simply as “Alex,” a football agent with an enticing offer: a trial with Ajax Amsterdam’s under-21 team. “I have something in the Netherlands now. Direct signing,” he wrote. Attached was a screenshot of a supposed message from an Ajax coach, claiming the club urgently needed midfielders, wingers, and strikers.

Soon after, a six-page “contract” arrived, all…