Australian football gets serious

[Very near...far away]

http://au.fourfourtwo.com/news/246374,r ... fraud.aspx

EXCLUSIVE: When he's not spinning lies about his silky football skills, phantom footballer Dexter Rosales was spinning the decks as chubby wannabe DJ Dexter Rosa in Miami in the USA.

We tracked him down to Fort Lauderdale in Florida where he is better known as Dexter Rosa Monsalve who works as an occasional DJ, touring the country playing late night gigs at obscure venues.

The Colombian-American also has another secret though - five years ago, he was arrested by police and charged with a series of offences including car theft, criminal mischief...and fraud.

When he was just 20 years old in Cape Canaveral, Florida, he was arrested on a string of charges including credit card fraud after stealing a car for a joy-ride during a football match.

But at the time he was actually being charged by police in the US, his CV claimed he was in Argentina, ripping it up in the River Plate reserves.

According to the blockbuster CV sent round clubs including Adelaide United, he was a gun striker for the legendary side, notching up 26 goals and 12 assists in just 32 games.

However his success there was as much a myth as his sensational stint in Ajax reserves where his CV said he had scored 21 goals and set up another nine in just 17 matches.

Fake FIFA agent Dimitri Kascovic touted his impressive resume around clubs - and the blockbuster stats won him a trial at Adelaide United after attracting the attention of an Australian agent, Lou Nesci.

Alarm bells had already rung a month earlier when he was linked with a trial at Western Sydney Wanderers but they wisely pulled the plug despite an elaborate info pack of impressive stats, medical reports and a powerpoint presentation.

Videos of him cutting a swathe through the opposition turned out to be of another player with a similar name - Mauro Rosales - and were filmed years before Rosales was ever supposed to be at Ajax.

The only online references to "Dexter Rosales" were self-created websites designed to corroborate the fantasy and feature prominently in any Google search.

Despite that, Adelaide still offered him a trial after he offered to pay his own way...but he never turned up.

On his DJ listing, he claims to have a familiar-sounding manager, Christopher Kascovic, to handle his bookings - but he had very few engagements, and only has two mixes available online.

He told au.fourfourtwo.com today that DJ'ing was his hobby and his love of the nightlife was one of the key reasons he's never got a break as a professional footballer.

However he still insisted: "Most of my bio is true - just that my former agent exaggerated to an extreme."

But it was Ajax Orlando Prospects in Florida - a kids team when he was just 16 in 2003.

The club - an academy-style affiliate of the Eredivisie side - shut its doors in 2006, four years BEFORE Rosales's fake CV claimed he joined the real Dutch side in Amsterdam.

Today he admitted: "There is a huge misunderstanding. My former agent exaggerated to an extreme..."

Rosales - real name Dexter Rosa Monsalve - spoke exclusively to au.fourfourtwo.com from his home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where he has been laying low since the storm broke.

He was due to fly to Adelaide this week for a trial with Reds coach John Kosmina after he appeared to be an undiscovered sensation, with an amazing record in the reserves for River Plate in Argentina and Ajax in Holland.

An Achilles tendon injury was said to have ended his deal in Holland and he'd snubbed overtures from Valencia to recover from surgery and look for a new club elsewhere.

In reality though, Monsalve has never played professional football.

"Never got the opportunity," he said today. "Have I trained with these clubs? Yes, and I was impressive!

"Most of it was because I knew many connections in Miami and I travel and actually squeeze myself in to playing with big clubs just to have the experience, even though I never took money from any club.

"But then I noticed I was as good or even better than some of these 'professionals'.

"As a matter of fact, three weeks ago I played with Edgar Davids in Miami - we played at an indoor soccer cage in Brickell."

Colombian-American Monsalve blamed his elusive agent "Dimitri Kascovic" for the mess and said he was unaware the agent was not FIFA-registered.

He insisted the agent did exist despite being unknown outside of Monsalve's fake CV. Monsalve also moonlights as a DJ and had an agent Christopher Kascovic for that, but said the two were unrelated and the unusual surname was just a coincidence.

"I believe my agent did things to show me off to a good club so that my game will speak for itself," Monsalve said.

"My former agent does exist - that he is not registered with FIFA, I don't know. When you're a player, you truly don't ask for someone's credentials.

"He exploited me with some false pretences. He thought he could get me a shot at a good club so I could show my talent. Not any club will take a look at a player just like that.

"It was wrong from his side and mine for allowing it to happen to an extreme. I am a footballer and only my game will speak for itself."

Monsalve admitted he was arrested and charged with grand theft auto and credit card fraud five years ago but insisted it was a one-off.

"I took a car for a joyride and I was charged with GTA, and I bought a couple of things at a gas station with his credit card," he confessed.

"To be honest, I hated that guy, so while playing football, I took his keys and parked the car somewhere else.

"But I do admit it was wrong and childish."

He said he changed his football name to Dexter Rosales because he got stick as a child as Rosa means 'flower' in Spanish.

"Dexter Rosales was given to me in Argentina when some of the kids said that my name was weak so I changed it so it sounded cool," he said.

"It's like Ronaldinho or Gaucho, or many footballers who don't like their name and they put a different name."

Despite the furore over his faked credentials, Monsalve still hopes to trial at Adelaide and take them to glory in their Asian Champions League campaign.

He added: "I never intended to do anything wrong to Adelaide United. If anything I was determined to win that Asian Champions League.

"I have nothing to hide and I will go to Adelaide and pay my way to try out - and let my game speak peacefully.

"I want to apologise to Kosmina, Lou Nesci and Adelaide. My intention was to finally be disciplined and show my skills on the pitch and the Asian Championship.

"And do it well...never asking for a single dime."

[Toon Toon Blue army]

Summary??

[From Despair To Where?]

Ali Dia Mark II basically.

Chancer hoping that Australia's answer to Graeme Souness signs him up on the basis of a video of a different youth player with a similar name and fake CV citing him as River Plate and Ajax's greatest you prospect ever. Plays sunday league football in Miami for a team called Ajax and is touting himself around the A League.