The player falsely identified as having died in a car crash has admitted that he has found the furore over his death "a little funny".
Fernando Nuno La Fuente has revealed that he had to call his mother in Spain to confirm he is safe and well, after Dublin-based football club Ballybrack had falsely reported his death.
The IT-worker’s unlikely resurrection - and his club’s attempt to simulate the most serious injury imaginable - has made headlines around the world.
Mr La Fuente told RTÉ’s Today with Sean O’Rourke show he had been aware that the club would use his name to get the game called off, but he thought a broken leg was going to be the extent of his fictitious
injury.
Ballybrack was due to play Arklow at the weekend, a game that was postponed by the Leinster Senior League as a mark of respect to the supposedly-deceased Mr La Fuente.
Other ties in the competition went ahead, with minutes silence observed in memory of him.
However league administrators became suspicious, and on Tuesday night confirmed that Mr La Fuente was alive and well.
It was at this point that the IT-worker, who now lives in Galway, started receiving calls.
“That’s how I found out I was dead,” he said.
“I was at home after work, playing video games when I got a call from work saying ‘you’re a celebrity’. They said I was on the news,” he said.
Mr La Fuente said he has since spoken to the club, which has apologised.
It's serious on their part but I'm finding it a little bit funny because basically I'm not dead.
Leinster Senior League chairman David Moran told RTÉ Sport that the administrators started to suspect something was amiss when they spoke with the club on Monday.
“We wanted to show our sympathies and go to the Mass and maybe meet the family and see what we could do to help in this horrible situation.
"And we were told he was flown back to Spain on the Saturday. Straight away, that rang alarm bells for us.
"How would you die early on Friday morning and be flown back to Spain on the Saturday?
"We checked the hospitals, we checked everywhere. Nobody could find anything about this young fella.
Irish football club Ballybrack FC has issued an apology after lying about the death of a player: https://t.co/UrEKAUALAn pic.twitter.com/JVbZBxL4Mi
— CNN Sports (@cnnsport) November 28, 2018
"Obviously, some of his teammates released stuff on social media saying he went back to Spain four weeks ago,” Mr Moran said.
The club issued a statement in which it apologised to all concerned for the incident.
“This grave and unacceptable mistake was completely out of character and was made by a person who has been experiencing severe personal difficulties unbeknownst to any other members of the club,” Ballybrack said.
“The club will continue to provide a duty of care to all parties and offer the support that may be needed at this time.
"This person had previously contributed greatly to the senior team within the club in recent years and to the wider footballing community across Dublin for decades,” the statement read.