Today is a very sad day for someone called João Gomes in Brazil.
No, we’re not talking about Wolverhampton Wanderers midfielder João Gomes, who moved to Molineux in a €18.7m deal from Flamengo in January and is set to make €340k from that transfer.
We’re actually referring to a random man called João Gomes, who, at the weekend, unexpectedly received that chunk of money in his bank account.
As reported by G1, Flamengo realised they made that mistake on Friday. They were supposed to pay the Wolves player for his share of the deal, and for some reason, sent it to a namesake of his.
That’s when our random João Gomes checked his bank account at the weekend and found a transfer of nearly two million reais there.
And why is today such a sad day for him? Well, the Federal Court of Rio de Janeiro now blocked the deposit, acknowledging that the money did not belong to him. G1 features part of the judge’s decision.
“It appears, prima facie, that there was a serious error on the part of Clube de Regatas do Flamengo in transferring a large amount of which the athlete João Victor Gomes da Silva (“João Gomes”), the different person, his namesake, is the beneficiary, with another enrolment in the Individual Taxpayer Registration – CPF.”
“Therefore, as a logical corollary, the obligation to return the amount deposited by mistake, in protection of objective good faith and to avoid unjust enrichment, under the terms of art. 884 of the Civil Code.”
So as the midfielder João Gomes still works on his adaptation to Wolves, that was a good scare he had at the weekend, but everything should be fine now.