Former Manchester United winger Nani has been involved in a bizarre altercation with a fan in Portugal which almost left the player in hot water with the police.
The 37-year-old is now plying his trade for Premira Liga side C.F. Estrela da Amadora where he met the supporter when driving outside of the stadium.
As reported by talkSPORT, the fan asked the attacker to sign an unofficial version of his Euro 2016 national kit, which he had previously purchased online.
Nani, at first, looked like he was happy to sign the shirt but then things took a peculiar turn.
The former United man took the shirt from the individual, placed it on the passenger seat of his car and drove away from the ground, leaving the fan in “complete shock”.
José Marques was the fan in question and he later posted the claims on Reddit alongside a video of the interaction before explaining how he purchased the shirt.
“Good evening… unfortunately today an athlete from Estrela da Amadora stole a shirt from me that was meant to be autographed by him.
About three or four weeks ago, I was browsing Vinted and found an UNOFFICIAL match shirt [not worn by him], but it had the patches applied to make it look like a match shirt,” it read.
Nani has previously claimed to have had some of his match-worn shirts from Portugal’s victorious Euro 2016 campaign stolen and believed this to be one of them.
The four-time Premier League winner’s team released a statement regarding the matter, offering an apology for the regrettable incident.
“Following a situation that occurred yesterday after training which has a video published online, player Luís Nani is sorry about the misunderstanding and embarrassment caused to the fan.
The shirt in question was recognized by Nani as being an official shirt from his private collection, which had previously been stolen,” it read.
Nani’s advisors continued by saying he had spoken to the fan to who ensured him it wasn’t a shirt from his stolen collection and he would get it back to him as soon as possible.
“After taking the shirt, Nani asked the fan about where he acquired the shirt and guaranteed that it would be given back to him, if he could confirm that it wasn’t his.”
However, Mr. Marques returned to Reddit on Friday afternoon to advise the situation had not been resolved and has filed an official police report.
The fan also accused a club director of telling him to delete his post and video, promising he would help get the issue sorted, yet he is still to hear anything concrete from the club or player.
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