In a bizarre turn of events, a 19-year-old Indian student managed to trick the All India Football Federation (AIFF) into believing that Spanish football legend Xavi Hernandez had applied to become the head coach of the Indian national team.
The student, who studies at Vellore Institute of Technology, revealed to The Telegraph that he used ChatGPT to draft a convincing email “from” Xavi, stating his supposed interest in the vacant coaching role.
After creating a Gmail account under the name of Xavi, he simply pasted the AI-generated message and sent it to the federation with no attachments, résumé or official verification.
To his surprise, the AIFF took the bait.
According to reports, the email was taken seriously by the governing body with internal discussions even raising concerns about whether the former Barcelona midfielder’s salary demands might be too high for Indian football.
Some officials believed the approach was genuine and even briefed members of the media that Xavi had expressed “serious interest” in the job.
The prank was only exposed after the AIFF began shortlisting applicants from the 170 received, and closer scrutiny revealed that not only Xavi’s but also a similarly fake email “from Pep Guardiola” were both fabricated.
The federation has since confirmed the hoaxes and stated the applications were unverifiable and have been dismissed.
The AIFF is now in the final stages of appointing a new coach with Stephen Constantine, Stefan Tarkovic, and Khalid Jamil emerging as the serious contenders.
FKA/AME
Meanwhile, watch as Prophet Worlasi shares bombshell prophesies on Bawumia and NPP on The Lowdown:
