It's often said to never believe what Wikipedia says and that statement rang true for Lithuanian side FK Panevėžys, who signed a player based on his profile on the website, despite it being completely fabricated.

They announced the signing of Barkley Miguel Panzo and going off their statement on their official website, think it's a bit of a marquee signing.

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Panzo is a real footballer, in fact he is verified on Instagram, but a lot of the stats and information on his Wikipedia profile are not and it's led to him getting his next career move.

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#DidierDrogba A post shared by Barkley Miguel Panzo (@bmp_11) on Mar 11, 2014 at 3:30pm PDT

@nike A post shared by Barkley Miguel Panzo (@bmp_11) on Aug 10, 2017 at 12:00pm PDT

Not only is he listed as an Angola international, his page also states that he played for QPR in the Championship between 2010 and 2012, scoring 45 goals in 36 games. Of course, it never happened.

Incredible story in Lithuanian football. 2nd division side Panevėžys have signed Barkley Minguel-Panzo and seemed to believe in his fake story. His Wikipedia page states he scored 45 goals in 36 matches for Queens Park Rangers. He actually never played for them. pic.twitter.com/I1eMPNIeGO - Justas Kontrimas (@ClaretLTU) February 2, 2018

What a scam. #FKPanevėžys sign a deal with a striker

Barkley Miguel Panzo, who has fake #Wikipedia account, but club believes in those numbers. pic.twitter.com/gPyfROJGcy - Aurimas Adomaitis (@AdomaitisAuris) February 2, 2018

He did however turn out for Non-League Woking, but one would think that FK Panevėžys won't have been too impressed by that.</s></s>A story announcing the signing of a footballer on Lithuanian club FK Panevezys’ website appears to have included some impressive stats on the player that unfortunately don’t exist.

A story announcing the signing of a footballer on Lithuanian club FK Panevezys’ website appears to have included some impressive stats on the player that unfortunately don’t exist.

FK Panevezys appear to think their new signing scored heavily for QPR…but he didn’t

Panevezys play in Lithuania’s Turnyro Lentele, where they finished 10th in 2017. On February 1, the club announced the signing of striker Barkley Miguel-Panzo on their website with a photo of the player, accompanied by the following information:

“The Paris born footballer started his career in the UK’s Queens Park Rangers (QPR) club. In the 2010-2012 season, while he was playing for QPR, B. Panzo played 36 “Championship” games and scored 24 goals.” A view of the TV stand at Loftus Road Impressive numbers – that’s 0.66 goals per game – the only problem is that QPR say he never played for them.

Transfermarkt.co.uk claims Miguel-Panzo played for Woking at one point before moving to a variety of French clubs, with his last recorded team being Syrianska FC of Sweden’s third tier. It also says he is 25, was born in Paris and is a centre-forward of Angolan nationality. Training time, focus and working hard with my bro @NevelloY the wolf 😂✔️ pic.twitter.com/YCqW9GCxti — Barkley Miguel Panzo (@BMP_Officiel) November 7, 2017 Of further interest is the striker’s Wikipedia page. An old revision of the page from January 16 claims he scored 24 goals in 36 league games for QPR, while on February 2 the page was edited so many times it has now been stripped to a bare minimum, with a note on the most recent edit claiming a “major reliability issue” with the article.

One previous edit of the Wikipedia article claims Miguel-Panzo had scored a quite sensational 45 goals in 36 league games for QPR. Miguel-Panzo and FK Panevezys have yet to respond to the Press Association’s requests for a comment. There is no suggestion that the player has anything to do with the incorrect information, nor that the club signed the player on the basis of any incorrect information.</s>Wikipedia for many is an ideal "go-to" destination for a myriad of wide ranging information but it's not always 100% reliable with many false profiles or occasional incorrect data input.

This is something that second tier Lithuanian side FK Panevėžys discovered this week after announcing the acquisition of "Angolan international and star player" Barkley Miguel-Panzo. The club have invested in a forward they were led to believe had starred for Championship side Queens Park Rangers bagging an impressive 45 goals for The "R's" between 2010 and 2012. They also presumed that their new striker had played at international level with Angola.

What sounds like a promising signing on paper turned out to be false with the player's footballing CV including spells with non-league Woking in England and spells with French second tier US Orleans and more recently with former Swedish Superettan outfit Syrianska and then lower league Oskarshamns AIK.</s>A story announcing the signing of a footballer on Lithuanian club FK Panevezys’ website appears to have included some impressive stats on the player that unfortunately don’t exist.

Panevezys play in Lithuania’s Turnyro Lentele, where they finished 10th in 2017. On February 1, the club announced the signing of striker Barkley Miguel-Panzo on their website with a photo of the player, accompanied by the following information:

“The Paris born footballer started his career in the UK’s Queens Park Rangers (QPR) club. In the 2010-2012 season, while he was playing for QPR, B. Panzo played 36 “Championship” games and scored 24 goals.”

Impressive numbers – that’s 0.66 goals per game – the only problem is that QPR say he never played for them.

Transfermarkt.co.uk claims Miguel-Panzo played for Woking at one point before moving to a variety of French clubs, with his last recorded team being Syrianska FC of Sweden’s third tier. It also says he is 25, was born in Paris and is a centre-forward of Angolan nationality.

Of further interest is the striker’s Wikipedia page. An old revision of the page from January 16 claims he scored 24 goals in 36 league games for QPR, while on February 2 the page was edited so many times it has now been stripped to a bare minimum, with a note on the most recent edit claiming a “major reliability issue” with the article.

One previous edit of the Wikipedia article claims Miguel-Panzo had scored a quite sensational 45 goals in 36 league games for QPR.

Miguel-Panzo and FK Panevezys have yet to respond to the Press Association’s requests for a comment. There is no suggestion that the player has anything to do with the incorrect information, nor that the club signed the player on the basis of any incorrect information.</s>What a scam. #FKPanevėžys sign a deal with a striker

 Barkley Miguel Panzo, who has fake #Wikipedia account, but club believes in those numbers. pic.twitter.com/gPyfROJGcy</s>A French-Angolan striker, Barkley Miguel Panzo has secured himself a deal with a Lithuanian second division side, FK Panevėžys, with a fake Wikipedia profile.

According to a statement by Panevėžys’ website, the club expressed delight at having a high-level player within the rank of its players.

“It appears that the player has played at high-level championships,” said a statement on Panevėžys’ website.

A check on the player's record only shows he hasplayed for Queens Park Rangers (QPR)'s youth team. But Panevezys look to have fallen for in their official announcement literally relayed Ponzo's Wikipedia profile.

“A footballer born in Paris began his professional career in England at the Queens Park Rangers club. In the 2010-2012 season, representing the QPR team in the Championship, B. Panzo played 36 matches with 24 goals,” the statement reads.

“After that, the footballer had to play with Sarlat Marcillac, Moulins, Trevino is Foot, Les Sables-d’Olonne.

“In the 2016-2017 season, Mr Panzo fought in France’s second-best league (Ligue-2), where he defended the Orleans team’s reputation. The attacker scored 6 goals in a 21-match match at Orleans.”

Panzo is not the first to do this

Barkley Miguel Panzo may just be following the example of the Senegalese Sunday league striker, Ali Dia. In September 1996, secured a one-month contract with English Premier League side, Southampton after claiming he was a cousin to George Weah.

Dia convinced the then manager of Southampton, Graeme Souness, that he has the playing agility and skills of his cousin who was then the FIFA World Player of the Year and Ballon d'Or winner. This led to his contract with the club.

And after just one match and woefully performance on the pitch, Dia was released by the English club.</s>Lithuanian club Vytautas will reportedly guarantee the contracts of LiAngelo and LaMelo Ball for the remainder of the season.

According to The Vertical’s Shams Charania, the decision had been a “foregone conclusion.”

Lithuanian club Vytautas Prienu will exercise contract guarantee options for LaMelo and LiAngelo this month, as the sides have committed to the remainder of the season through June, sources told Yahoo Sports. […] For LaMelo and LiAngelo, the decision to sign in Lithuania has led to individual and team progress, and Vytautas team officials told Yahoo Sports the commitment for the remainder of the season has been a foregone conclusion.</s>We have all heard the tale about former Newcastle United striker Obafemi Martins reportedly lying about his age when making his move to the Premier League, however what about signing a player on the back of their completely fabricated Wikipedia page?

Well, let me ask if any Queens Park Rangers fans

No, I didn't think so. Probably because he never played for the R's, however according to his own Wikipedia page, he has, and, a on Twitter

The club, which are based in the fifth largest city in the country, were so impressed with his apparent record of 24 goals in 36 games for the west London side during his 'two-year' spell, they snapped him up, and judging by their official announcement, were only too keen to boast about it.

"In the 2010-2012 season, representing the QPR team in the Championship, B. Panzo played 36 matches with 24 goals", the statement read on Panevėžys' official website

Another claim on the 25-year-old's page is that he recorded three international showings for Angola, which again, there seems to be a lack of proof behind.

"In 2015, Panzo was invited to the Angolan national team", the club statement continued.

"In the wake of his national team shirt, the striker played three matches at the African Cup Qualifying Round and scored one goal." Errr...no he didn't.

Despite what you may now be thinking, Miguel-Panzo is actually a professional footballer, however his real story of securing one run out for non-league side Woking may not have impressed his new employers to the same heights.</s>The Wikipedia article about Elizabeth Cannon might show you why professors don’t want their students citing the online, crowd-sourced encyclopedia.

The page, which when accessed on Feb. 2 describes Cannon in its first paragraph as “the leader of one of Canada’s top research universities” and “a passionate advocate of higher education to drive innovation, leadership and community engagement.” It also apparently violates Wikipedia’s standards of neutrality and fairness for biographies of living persons — the website describes Cannon’s page as an “advertisement.”

Above: Cannon’s Wikipedia page as it appeared on Feb. 2.

The architects of the page’s current content are the users behind the IP addresses 136.159.160.2, 136.159.160.3 and 136.159.160.4, whose geolocations place them on the same subnet within the University of Calgary’s internet service provider. Shortly before edits from within the U of C started, Cannon’s page was a biography adhering to Wikipedia standards that also included information on the Enbridge scandal and the U of C’s lawsuit with the Students’ Union over ownership of MacHall.

On Dec. 22, 2015, a user with a U of C IP address altered information in the paragraphs about Enbridge and MacHall to include updates sourced and copied verbatim from the U of C’s in-house UToday publication.

On Jan. 4, 2016, a user with a U of C IP address deleted all reference to the Enbridge scandal and the MacHall lawsuit, with a comment on the edit saying that “findings of the independent review affirm President Elizabeth Cannon acted with integrity in all matters related to the Centre for Corporate Sustainability,” verbatim with a statement released weeks earlier by the U of C Board of Governors vice-chair Gord Ritchie

Above: A selection of edits to Cannon’s Wikipedia page by U of C IP addresses.

Cannon’s page went through a complete overhaul one week later on Jan. 11, 2016, when the biographical elements of the page were replaced by content heavily focusing on Cannon’s achievements.

The page has since remained largely the same, with a few attempts by non-Calgary Wikipedia users to alter the article. One user removed some of the article, commenting that “several paragraphs of superfluous praise for Dr. Cannon were removed in order to make the article more objective and less opinionated.” Another removed almost all of the article, citing its similarity to the school’s official biography of Cannon on its website. In the second instance, which took place on Oct. 6, 2017, a user with a U of C IP address restored the contents of the article twice.

Above: A revision to Cannon’s Wikipedia page by a U of C IP address that removes reference to the MacHall lawsuit and the Enbridge scandal.

Cannon’s current Wikipedia article, as of Feb. 2, contains a disclaimer that it “contains content that is written like an advertisement,” calling for users to improve it. On the article’s discussion page, one user notes that mention of the Enbridge scandal “seems to have been wiped from Wikipedia entirely.”

The U of C did not comment by press time.

A full revision history of Cannon’s Wikipedia page can be found here.
FK Panevėžys, a Lithuanian football club from the second-level I Lyga, is allegedly duped into signing Barkley Miguel Panzo based on fabricated data from a Wikipedia page. However, the club apologizes on 3 February for "the appearance of incorrect information" on its website.