“Fraudsters ruined my football dreams,” says RT 20-year-old Senegalese Malik Dionge. - I have been playing soccer since I was 6 years old. In Senegal, played for the junior team. In winter, I saw an ad on the Internet: “We help legionnaires with getting into German football clubs.” I collected money, borrowed from relatives. I am now so ashamed to go home with nothing! ”
On April 4, Malik Dionge wrote a statement to the police with a request to prosecute the leaders of Petersrod Football Club LLC.
According to the Senegalese, he arrived in Moscow in February on a sports visa issued by Petersrode for a thousand dollars. In the capital, he was settled in a cheap hostel along with a dozen other Africans.
According to Dionge, the football agent was constantly collecting money for accommodation, uniforms, Russian and German visas. At the same time there was no promised training, no reviews.
Suspecting something was wrong, the African decided to find another agent in Russia. On the Internet, he saw an advertisement for the Russian-Nigerian Football Association, whose president, Vadim Boyko, recruited players.
- © Photo courtesy of the public organization "Alternative"
“I wrote to him, and he called me to play in his team African Thunder,” says Malik. True, for the admission to the club, which was based in Sochi, the Senegalese had to pay about another 20 thousand rubles. Then the story repeated.
According to Malik, over the past month the team held a couple of friendly games with local amateur footballers. Photos from these matches Boyko laid out in the network for advertising and enticing new "players".
At the same time, according to a novice athlete, in fact, all the players were sitting without money and could no longer go anywhere.
In total, according to Dionge's calculations, he paid the “agents” about three thousand dollars.
"Almost nine months homeless"
Senegalese managed to leave the Krasnodar Territory thanks to a 39-year-old Sochi resident Anna Ponomareva. A woman of half a year is trying to smuggle several African Thunder players from Russia.
- © Photo courtesy of the public organization "Alternative"
One of the Africans, 24-year-old Temple John from Nigerian Lagos, Anna even settled in her. Like Malik, he came to Russia to become a footballer. His relatives spent all their savings and went into debt so that Temple could pay for Boyko’s services.
“I accidentally stumbled upon this team,” says Ponomareva. - I'm going through the city somehow, I see a crowd of blacks on the street. All kind of tattered, snotty, bad clothes. I felt sorry, asked what happened. So I learned about the legionnaires from the "African Thunder".
According to Ponomarev, she tried to contact the club's president, Vadim Boyko.
“In a correspondence, he wrote to himself that he was a former military man, a swordsman, a footballer and a Cossack, that he doesn’t hear well after a contusion. In a word, he didn’t really explain anything to me, ”says Ponomoryova. “But, apparently, he quite cleverly manipulates the confidence of the Africans.” They are like children, if a person is in a jacket, then “big man” already means, you can believe him. Here Boyko each of them separately and "in secret" promises something. Money sucks, and when it ends - throws to the mercy of fate. ”
The woman claims that one of his “players”, 23-year-old Nigerian Oluvashon Babatunde, Boyko “forgot” in Abkhazia. According to Anna, the young man studied at the physical education department of the Shuya branch of the Ivanovo State Institute. Oluvashon saw an advertisement for “African Thunder” on the Internet, wrote off Boyko and believed in his stories about the prospects of becoming a professional football player.
“In August, Boyko managed to organize the departure of the team to Abkhazia - at the expense of the players themselves, of course,” says Anna. - There he “forgot” Oluvashon. Sean still has a Russian visa, Boyko took the money from him for the extension, promised to help. As a result, Sean was stuck without money in Abkhazia. Almost nine months there homeless. Now we are thinking how to get him out of there. ”
Manchester vs Liverpool
The woman, together with the volunteers of the public organization "Alternative", helped Malik to raise money for a ticket to Moscow. In the capital, the Senegalese appealed to the police with a statement that he was deceived in "Petersrod" and "African thunder".
According to the database "Kontur.Fokus", LLC Football Club "Petersroda" was registered on October 1, 2018. The general director and founder is Sergey Salivonchik. However, the Internet agent of the club listed Andrey Nebylitsyn. Malik Dionge was negotiating with him.
RT was able to contact Nebylitsyn. He confirmed that the police questioned him at the request of the Senegalese. In this case, the man denies all accusations. According to him, there was no deception.
“Foreigners were informed of all the conditions in advance. They have to pay for the views, trainings and accommodation themselves, ”says Nebylitsyn.
According to him, the monthly payments for the “services” of coaches and accommodation are $ 420, while they received only $ 100 from Malik.
At the same time, according to Nebylitsyn, the Senegalese complains about him at the request of rival Vadim Boyko.
RT tried to contact Vadim Boyko, but could not get his comment.
In turn, Anna Ponomoryova and “Alternatives” volunteers believe that there is a fraudulent scheme in Russia to lure foreigners from Africa.
“There are several such“ agents, ”says Anna. - In addition to Nebylitsyna and Boyko, there is still some Denis Vizer. To him, too, Africans drove. So he introduced himself at all to some kind of football cone, divided the guys into Manchester and Liverpool, took the money and disappeared. ”