Soccer

Bizzare anecdote: Wrong Wikipedia data crushes former Danish youth talent's dream move to Belgium in 2017

Mads Fenger, an ex-Danish youth international, had been on the verge of sealing his dream transfer from his homeland to the Belgian side,Zulte Waregem in 2017. However, as luck would have it, a wrong Wikipedia statstopped the move from being finalized.

Mads Fenger of Hammarby
© Michael Campanella/Getty ImagesMads Fenger of Hammarby

An unprecedented bizarre episodetook place in Belgium in 2017 that includedformer Denmark youth international, Mads Fenger. The then 25-year-old defenderwas a member of Danish teamRanders, but hewas expected to move to the Belgian side Zulte Waregem in the summer of 2017.The Dane had consequentlytraveled toBelgium and posed with the Zulte Waregem jersey.

However, an extraordinary situation is what prevented him from signing a contract with the Belgian side.The centre-back was on the verge of securing the new leap of his carer, but the transfer failed due to – Wikipedia. During the medical tests, the Zulte medical teammeasuredFenger’sheight and according to them, hehad turned out to be standing tall at 1.83 m.

Meanwhile,on Wikipedia, itsaid his height was 1.86 m. There hadbeen no such case so far, especially since, Wikipedia is not an official source of information, but this time it was the main culprit for perhaps one of the most transfer failures. What is even more interesting is thatFenger’s height was corrected on Wikipedia, so now it says that the Dane, who is now playing for Swedish club Hammarby,is 1.83 mtall.

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Mads Fenger’s transfer falls through due to Wikipedia

Zulte Waregem scouts often came to Randers matches to see him and made it clear that they wanted to hire him. Fengerhad offers from Poland, Sweden, Norway, but heagreed afour-year contract with Waregem, whoat that time, were placed thirdin the Belgian championship“, revealedFenger’s former agent, Mads Bach Lund.

“Everything went well,there was no problem. Nonetheless,then theystarted saying that something was wrong andthe doctors were whispering something in English and Belgian that we didn’t understand. They started asking Fenger about his height and he replied: ‘1.84 or 1.83, you just measured me.’

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“That is whenthe unthinkable happened, asthe Belgian club had decided they didn’t want tobuy Fenger anymore. I received an apology email from their sporting director, in which they said they believed he was 1.86 m tall as written on Wikipedia and other sites. However, when they measured him, they had understood that he wasstanding at1.83 m,” he ended the anecdote.

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