Who is Jose Alberti?

Sky and The Telegraph are both picking up on yesterday's story that Jose Alberti thinks Luca Toni will join West Ham,

'I think it will happen. At Bayern (Toni) is not playing and Zola is a great friend of his.'

The media continue to report that Jose Alberti is Luca Toni's agent when he clearly isn't. Luca Toni's agent is Tullio Tinti.

So who is this Jose Alberti? Jose Alberti is a name used continuously on Goal.com to appear to give credence to otherwise speculative stories. Goal.com describe Alberti's job in a number of ways, depending on the subject of the story. He has been called a 'talent scout and transfer consultant', a 'South American football expert' and in yesterday's story Goal.com called him an 'Argentine agent'.

This seems to be where the confusion started. Goal.com, in its story, clearly strongly implied that Jose Alberti was Toni's agent to give credence to what was really a wildly speculative claim that was very unlikely ever to happen. The website however never actually said that Alberti was Toni's agent, just that he was an agent.

The rest of the media, perhaps knowingly to give credence to their own repetition of this wild claim that Toni will join West Ham, have missed this subtle implication and have gone on to report that Alberti is Toni's agent.

Aberti is not Toni's agent. Luca Toni will not be joining West Ham.