Imagine reading news about a footballer dying in a tragic car crash, only to see him alive and well four years later, working a regular job in Germany.
As unbelievable as it sounds, this is exactly what happened in the real-life story of Hiannick Kamba, a former Schalke youth player and teammate of Manuel Neuer.
In 2016, the football world mourned the reported death of Kamba.
The Congolese-German full-back had supposedly died in a car accident in the Democratic Republic of Congo, far away from the football fields of Europe. Obituaries were published. Condolences were offered. It was over or so we thought.
But in 2020, German authorities got the shock of their lives.
Hiannick Kamba was alive. And not just alive, he was living and working in the Ruhr area, employed as a chemical technician at an energy company.
How did this happen?
Turns out, the entire story of his death was a carefully crafted lie, allegedly orchestrated by his ex-wife. The motive?
You guessed it, life insurance money.
According to the investigation, she had faked Kamba’s death to claim a six-figure insurance payout, leaving the former footballer stranded in Congo. Kamba had reportedly lost all his personal documents while in the country and couldn’t return to Germany until he sorted out his identity papers.
So while the world thought he had tragically passed away, he was stuck in a foreign country, fighting to prove he was still alive.
Authorities eventually tracked him down and began a criminal investigation into the insurance fraud. Meanwhile, Kamba cooperated with investigators and told his side of the story, a story that sounds like a Netflix thriller but is 100% true.
Hiannick Kamba’s tale is nothing short of surreal.
From Schalke’s youth academy to being declared dead and then showing up alive years later, Hiannick Kamba’s tale is nothing short of surreal.
It’s a reminder that football, for all its goals and glory, can sometimes throw up stories that are stranger than fiction.
