PADUA – He dreamed of a flight to Florida, the beaches of Miami and a contract in Stars and Stripes football. He finds himself without a team, with five thousand euros less and in a room at the Carabinieri headquarters in Padua. The soccer player Gennaro Cervasio, 23 years old, on Wednesday afternoon formalized a complaint for fraud against the attorney who was supposed to bring him to America. It’s all written in the two pages of the complaint in which the young man – with an important past in the youth sectors of Rome, Turin, Padua and Cittadella – reconstructs the facts in detail. And then he accuses: “Many other kids have been deceived like me, victims of promises that were never kept.”
THE PROFILE
Cervasio, a full-back from Puglia, grew up with many high hopes in the Padova youth team (until 2014) and then embarked on a long journey around Italy with the aim of becoming a professional. High level experiences in the youth sectors of Rome, Turin and Cittadella, but also Luparense, Fiuggi, Latina, Campodarsego, Arcella and Curtarolese. From the mirage of Serie A to the fields of Paduan amateurs, arriving at cultivating a new illusion to relaunch: foreign football.
THE CONTACT
Cervasio’s story begins here and ends with the complaint presented the day before yesterday. A story that tells a cross-section of the football undergrowth of those who stop at the gates of the dream.
«In June 2023 I was reached on Instagram by the profile of a man who said he owned a team in Las Vegas. Since I’m a free agent, I contact him and ask him if he can find me a team. He replied that I should have auditioned, but then due to some family problems I let it go.”
Only a few months pass. «In February this year he contacted me on Whatsapp telling me about the possibility of going to play in the Greek Serie B. I ask him if he has something to offer me in America and he talks to me about the possibility of going to Miami FC (team from the second American series coached by former Milan player Antonio Nocerino, ed.). He proposes a contract until 2027 and with the possibility of extension until 2030. I am very interested and I am asked to make two transfers to two different IBANs: one of 1,500 euros for the contract and one of 300 euros to have the Adidas sponsor. In the following days I was contacted by a lawyer who said he was following my case and made further requests for money. I trust blindly. On April 10th I make a new payment of 700 euros as the second tranche of the contract I signed and on April 22nd I make a new bank transfer of 600 euros which would have been used for the shipment of my new Adidas material”.
OTHER EXPENSES
We are already at 3,100 euros and it doesn’t end there. «On May 5th I make a bank transfer of 200 euros for the conversion of the driving license from Italian to American, on May 21st another thousand euros for the extension of my contract until 2030, the day after the last 1,200 euros for the purchase of airline tickets”. Total: 5,500 euros.
In the complaint Cervasio also refers to another young footballer from Padua who came into contact with the prosecutor: «He is a friend of mine. He paid him a thousand euros, then he decided not to trust him anymore and asked for a refund.” Money that would not yet be returned, in the face of sports contracts that would never have been started.
Cervasio decided to report everything “to prevent other kids from being victims of situations like mine”. But how do you pay so much money to a stranger without any in-person meeting and without any official contact with the company? «I trusted this person blindly, I just wanted to help my family financially by earning money to play in the USA. I didn’t even think that all this was fake.”
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PADUA – He dreamed of a flight to Florida, the beaches of Miami and a contract in Stars and Stripes football. He finds himself without a team, with five thousand euros less and in a room at the command of …
