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Stuttgart striker Silas Wamangituka played under false name for past 2 years

Berlin, Jun 8 (EFE).- Congolese soccer player Silas Wamangituka has been playing for German club VFB Stuttgart under a false identity for two years, the club announced Tuesday.

The player has admitted that his name is Silas Katompa Mvumpa, not Wamangituka, and that he was not born in October 1999, but one year earlier.

In a statement, the club said that the striker had “recently made it known (…) that he had been the victim of manipulation by his former player agent and that Wamangituka is not his real name.

“With the support of VfB and a new agent, Silas has been working intensively on clearing up the situation and finally received the corresponding official documentation from Democratic Republic of Congo a few days ago.”

Born in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the player arrived in Germany at the age of 19 from France, where he had played in the second division, after a spell in Belgium.

According to Stuttgart, the striker was convinced by his former agent to change his surname to hide his past links with a sports training center in his home country.

“From this point onwards, Silas was under the influence of the agent who syphoned off part of his wages and threatened him that he would never play football again if the matter ever became public,” the club said.

In the statement, Silas Katompa Mvumpa explained how he has been “constantly living in fear” over the past two years.

“It was a tough step for me to take to make my story public and I would never have had the courage to do so if Stuttgart, my team and VfB had not become like a second home and a safe place to me,” he said.

The German Football Federation (DFB) has said it is investigating the matter. EFE

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