Bundesliga side FC Augsburg have been forced to release a statement denying that their latest signing, Ricardo Pepi was peed on by manager Markus Weinzierl as part of a club initiation ceremony as "fake news."
The American became the club's record signing after joining from MLS side FC Dallas, when they beat competition from around Europe for his signature from the likes of Liverpool and Bayern Munich.
During an interview with German outlet Sport Bild this week, Pepi spoke of aspiring for Champions League qualification, before a fake quote then began to surface around social media hours later.
It claimed that as part of his welcome to the Bavarian club, Pepi was urinated on in the showers by Weinzierl in the club's training ground.
Seeing the funny side of it, Augsburg came out to release a statement on their Twitter account to deny the rather weird initiation idea.
https://twitter.com/FCAugsburg/status/1484154910828552192?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1484154910828552192%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.goal.com%2Fen-ug%2Fnews%2Ffake-news-augsburg-respond-to-false-quote-that-usmnt-star%2Fbltda209e30927701ef
They said: "(It's) actually obvious that this 'quote' is fake! We can laugh about a lot and often don't take ourselves too seriously.
"But since some of you out there seem to think so, let's make it clear that this is fake."
The 19-year-old has made two appearances for his new club since his arrival from the USA - making his debut in a 3-1 defeat to Hoffenheim as a substitute, before starting the following game in a 1-1 draw against Eintracht Frankfurt.
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