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Alessandro Zarrelli (born 5 September 1984), sometimes referred to as Alex Zarrelli, is an Italian semi-professional footballer and Academy professional football coach, who plays as a Defensive Midfielder for South of Scotland Football League side St Cuthbert Wanderers. He is also known in the United Kingdom as the young Italian player who sent fake faxes to football clubs in Wales and Northern Ireland during the 2004–05 season posing as a make believe Italian football official who was offering a young professional footballer on a cultural exchange from the Italian Football Association. Upon accepting the offer, the player they would receive instead would be Zarrelli, a young footballer who had gone through the youth system at A.C.D. Asti. Having managed to secure a short deal with Lisburn Distillery, he failed to impress both Bangor City and Connah's Quay Nomads despite spending time training with both clubs, and after both clubs sent out an alert over the "mystery Italian football star"〔http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/north_west/4326350.stm〕 in May 2006, he was eventually exposed by the Sky TV documentary "Superfakes". Since then, Zarrelli has forged a career as a semi-professional footballer in Scotland and England, has graduated in Sport at Leeds Metropolitan University and now coaches youngsters at academy level. He has previously played for Lisburn Distillery, AFC Wimbledon, Ardeer Thistle, Queens Park, Irvine Meadow, Northwich Victoria, Hucknall Town, Lincoln Moorlands Railway, Diss Town, Downham Town, Long Melford, Erith & Belvedere, Eastbourne Town, Sheppey United and Selkirk . ==Controversy== During the 2004–05 season, Alessandro Zarrelli, a young footballer from Turin in Italy, sent a fake letter and faxes to clubs in Northern Ireland and Wales posing as an up-and-coming young professional footballer, who had been offered to clubs on a cultural exchange by the Italian Football Federation. The letter was sent by an Italian Executive named "Matteo Colobase" when in reality Colobase did not exist. The letter promised the clubs a young Italian footballer who had previously played at youth level for clubs such as Sheffield Wednesday, Rangers and A.C.D. Asti. The first club he contacted was in January 2005, when he approached IFA Premiership side Lisburn Distillery, who eventually signed the player on a short-term deal, he only appeared for a handful of matches before being released later on that season due to a "breach of club rules". He then contacted Welsh Premier League side Bangor City in July 2005, who were unaware of his previous exploits in Northern Ireland, but after staying with the club 10 days, manager Peter Davenport contacted a friend who worked for Zarrelli's former club Sheffield Wednesday. Davenport's friend said that Wednesday only had him at the Club for about a month as a trainee; a few months later, Glasgow Rangers also confirmed that Zarrelli had been at Murray Park for 6–7 weeks in 2001, also as a trainee in their Academy. Most of the problems started during his time at Bangor, when he requested a wage of £200 a week despite initially stating in one of his letters that his wages would be supplied by the FIGC. Davenport went on to add, "He was only here for about a week to 10 days. In that time, I checked a bit into his background and it didn't add up. He arrived here with a broken nose, so he never actually played for Bangor. He just took part in one warm-up session. He wasn't anything special." Whilst staying with the club, he was put up in the town's Regency Hotel, owned by one of the Club's directors, in which upon his departure, he failed to settle his bill after a contract was not agreed during his stay in North Wales. He was eventually exposed by the Sky TV show "Superfakes" 〔 which covered Zarrelli's story. The documentary team were able to track the fax number to a shop in Asti, Italy. The crew then tracked him in London, where they staged a fake meeting posing as football scouts, Zarrelli showed up and began to talk for several minutes, before the crew sprung their surprise upon him. Zarrelli admitted sending the faxes but never taking any money from any club before later phoning the TV's presenters to sarcastically thanking them for making him famous. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Alessandro Zarrelli」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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