They say that there isn't much integrity in politics today, but this ex-Labour councillor - now a deputy mayor of London - must be a contender in the fib of the year stakes.
'Turkish football fans are among the most passionate in the world, so it was no surprise that in 2011, when it emerged that one of their own was set for an unlikely transfer to the European giants Real Madrid it made waves across the country.
Mete Serdar Coban, a 17-year-old left-back, was at the centre of it all; born in northern Cyprus but raised in London, he told a host of sports journalists and interviewers that he had been scouted by the Istanbul side Galatasaray before transferring to Inter Milan. Now, after four years in Italy, he was off to Europe’s biggest club. His claims were buttressed by social media posts and a grainy YouTube video of “highlights” from his Inter days.
There was one problem: the entire tale was fabricated. The closest Mete Serdar Coban had come to football stardom was a flunked trial at the other Madrid side, Atletico, a few years earlier. He slipped away from the limelight almost as quickly as he appeared.
Until, that is, he became a councillor in Hackney three years later — and a £148,000-a-year deputy mayor under Sir Sadiq Khan last summer.'
(The Times today, behind paywall)
https://www.thetimes.com/article/9a6b79f5-dd1d-4100-bdba-ea99c0a0d181 |  |
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