Breitbart have written an article about gangs bringing migrants from Morocco to Spain, and, incredibly, have used a picture of Lukas Podolski in the article.
The far-right American news website isn’t known for sticking closely to the truth, and has been caught out posting intentionally misleading stories in the past. However, things took a turn for the unusual, when an article about Moroccan migrants was accompanied by an image of the German international.
The story claimed that smugglers were carrying migrants from Morocco via the Strait of Gibraltar using jet-skis. But seemingly not in possession of any pictures of actual migrants on jet-skis, the site instead found a picture of the former Arsenal man and used that instead.
It’s more than a little unlikely that Podolski is jetting across the ocean into Europe, especially as he’s currently playing for new club, Vissel Kobe in Japan.
With two goals in his first four games for the club, he’s made a promising start to life in Asia, so there’s probably no need for the player to sneak back to Europe via jet propelled watercraft paid for by illegal gangs.
Perhaps in future Breitbart should double-check that their images of migrants aren’t in fact pictures of World Cup winners on holiday.
But then again, that might be asking too much of them.
UPDATE
Breitbart have since issued an apology, by way of an editor’s note on the original article. It said:
“A previous version of this story included an image of Lukas Podolski on a jet ski. This image appeared as an illustration of a person on a jet ski. Breitbart London wishes to apologise to Mr. Podolski.
“There is no evidence Mr. Podolski is either a migrant gang member, nor being human trafficked. We wish Mr. Podolski well in his recently announced international retirement.”