German police investigate ‘fake Lukas Podolski cousin’ after tattoo incident

And now for something completely different.

Lukas Podolski’s time at Arsenal was certainly eventful, even if sometimes it felt like that was mainly on social media.

The German won the FA Cup with the Gunners and was one of a number of players from his home country in the Arsenal squad. At that time, the German media would cover the Premier League club relentlessly, and Podolski would be happy to speak at length.

There’s only Mesut Ozil left from that time, with Per Mertesacker managing Arsenal Academy, and Shkodran Mustafi and Bernd Leno arriving since.

It’s not quite the same for the German press as when Podolski was there with all his media friendly antics. The footballer is still followed now he’s at Vissel Kobe, and still just as happy to make a story, but Bild’s latest story is about an event happening back home.

A man claiming to be Podolski’s cousin has gone into a tattoo parlour, had a €750 design put on him, and then left without payment.

Thinking they were dealing with the cousin of a World Cup winner, the shop let the customer go to get the money, whilst leaving his ID… which contained the surname Podolski.

He was never to be seen again, and now the police are investigating the ‘fake Lukas Podolski cousin’.

Bild quote Podolski himself as saying: “I don’t know who that is. He does not belong to the family, anyway.”