SILAS WAMANGITUKA: Incredible Story of Bundesliga Star Who Played With a Fake Identity

Silas Katompa Mvumpa, popularly known as Silas Wamangituka, is a forward who currently plays for Bundesliga club VfB Stuttgart as well as the Congolese National team.

The young forward recently made the headlines after revealing some shocking facts about his identity.

Almost two years after making his official debut for VfB Stuttgart, the Congolese forward admitted that his real name is Silas Katompa Mvumpa and not Silas Wamangituka. The former Paris FC forward, also revealed that he was one year older, as his real birth year is 1998, rather than 1999 which he has been using. All this Mvumpa attributed to his agent.

THE CHANGE OF IDENTITY

 Mvumpa once had a tryout with Belgian side Anderlecht in 2017 and he says he was pressured to move to Paris Fc by his now-former representative. The agent subsequently allowed the young player to live with him while he played football for Paris Fc and according to Mvumpa, also changed his name and date of birth.

Coming to his defense, his current club VFB Stuttgart, through a statement published on their official website, stressed that the false identity was the fault of his agent, who indicated that he would not be allowed to go back to Europe if he returned to Congo while plying his trade in Belgium.

The club further stated that the surname Wamangituka, which appears in his now falsified documentation, is one of the names of his father.

LIVING WITH FEAR

In the club's statement, Silas explained that he couldn't reveal the truth as he was afraid that his family in Congo would end up paying the consequences. In his words, he said;

"Over the past few years, I was constantly living in fear and was also very worried for my family in Congo"

"It was a tough step for me to take to make my story public and I would never have had the courage to do so if Stuttgart, my team, and VfB had not become like a second home and a safe place to me."

The German Bundesliga side in response to Silas’ revelation did show their support for the former Bundesliga rookie of the season in their club statement they had this to say:

"With the support of VfB and a new agent, Silas has been working intensively on clearing up the situation and finally received the corresponding official documentation from Democratic Republic of Congo a few days ago".

THE REACTION OF THE GERMAN FA

In response to the revelation, the German football association slammed the youngster with a ban and fined €30,000.

BIGGER PICTURE

While the ban did seem harsh given the circumstances, its effect seemed even worse as his return to action for Pellegrino Matarazzo’s side was plagued with a series of injuries. Though his season ended in a manner he would not like, Silas will hope he can hit the form that saw him named the Bundesliga rookie of the season in 2021. A form that saw him score 11 goals and 4 assists as well as bagging 3 Rookie of the month awards.