Two professional footballers have posted near-identical farewell messages to supporters following their departures from their respective clubs, prompting widespread suspicion that the notes were generated by artificial intelligence rather than written personally. According to 90min, Fábio Silva and Christantus Uche — who left Wolverhampton Wanderers and Getafe respectively — published statements so similar in phrasing and structure that supporters quickly began comparing them side by side on social media.
The episode, as 90min reports, appears to be a straightforward case of two players using the same AI tool or template to compose what are typically among the more emotionally charged communications a footballer makes to a fanbase. Farewell posts, by convention, carry an expectation of personal reflection — acknowledgement of specific moments, gratitude to teammates by name, the particular texture of a club's culture. When two messages from players at different clubs in different countries read as near-mirrors of each other, that expectation collapses rather visibly.
There is a broader context here. The use of AI-assisted writing in professional sport has grown quietly but substantially over the past few years, with clubs, agents, and individual players all known to use generative tools for social media output. What makes this case notable is not that AI may have been involved — that in itself is hardly remarkable — but that neither message appears to have been checked against the other, or indeed checked at all for the kind of specificity that makes a farewell feel genuine.
For supporters, the reaction has been a mixture of amusement and mild deflation. Fans of both clubs had presumably read their player's message in good faith before the comparison began circulating. The discovery does not necessarily mean the sentiments expressed were insincere, but it does raise a reasonable question about what supporters are actually receiving when a player signs off with a lengthy, warmly worded statement. A post that could, with minor substitution of names, serve any player leaving any club is, in a meaningful sense, not really addressed to anyone.
The incident also puts agents and player representatives in an awkward position. Managing a client's public profile increasingly involves social media strategy, and AI tools are a natural part of that workflow. But the efficiency those tools offer comes with a visible risk — one that this episode demonstrates with some clarity. A farewell message that trends for the wrong reasons is a minor embarrassment, but it is an embarrassment nonetheless.
Neither Silva nor Uche has commented publicly on the comparison, according to available reports. Whether either club's communications staff were involved in drafting the posts is not known. What the episode leaves behind is a small but pointed illustration of the tension between convenience and credibility in modern player communications — and a reminder that supporters, however briefly, still notice the difference.