While FIFA law does not state that a player needs to be attached to a professional club in order to play in the U-20 tournament, the Yum Yum Football Club seems to not exist at all, with no social media accounts, a website, or any other players attached to them besides Bameyi.

“Sure enough, Yum Yum FC doesn’t exist. It is likely that it was created or invented to make some profit from a transfer. This would explain why there was so much interest in calling him up, even with the senior team” is what was reported by Periódico de España who investigated the club.

“Yum Yum FC” writes to members of the media

On May 30th, Bolavip received an email from a Ismail Musa, who only attached paperwork suggesting that Yum Yum does exist and that Bameyi plays a wide range of positions, and that is why he was selected to the Nigerian squad. Those documents are attached.

The e-mail was from a Gmail account, with the other point of contact being a Yahoo account. According to Own Goal the “scam” in question is to make sure when the player is sold, those involved in Yum Yum can get a percentage of the player’s transfer fee.

“You cannot say very loudly and in public, but there is a powerful pressure group in (Bameyi) favor,” added the anonymous source to local media outlet Own Goal, “He has to play, whatever the cost, because it’s the only way this scam works”.

Stranger still for a young footballer, Daniel Bameyi has very little presence outside of the soccer field, he has an Instagram account which claims to be his official account and only has posts from two days ago, also the last upload is a logo of supposed club Yum Yum FC. Bameyi has only 13 followers.

According to a report from Brian Sciaretta, there is no such club by the name of Yum Yum Football Club in the Abuja region of Nigeria. Sources from Nigeria have also confirmed that the club does not exist and there are no registered players for such club in the federation.

On the website Transfermarkt, Daniel Bameyi is the only player listed for Yum Yum which has no crest visible on the website.

Daniel Bameyi may have lied about his club situation

Daniel Bameyi has no record of registering any first team club minutes, he has 5 appearances for the U-20 and one senior cap all while never having played a minute of club soccer. Many reporters in Nigeria are also putting into question the exact age of the defender.

“I chose him because he is a great defender, there are players of the same level, but I have to choose players that I trust”, was the statement by Jose Peseiro, head coach of the team, but many have called into question how Peseiro even became aware of the player with no club and no form of being discovered.

FIFA has yet to release a statement in regard to the matter.