19-Year-Old Student Pranks AIFF with Fake Xavi Job Application Using ChatGPT

A bizarre and embarrassing incident has recently come to light in Indian football administration. A sensational claim had spread that Spanish and Barcelona legend Xavi Hernández had applied to become the head coach of the Indian national football team. The news created a buzz both nationally and internationally. However, it was later revealed that the email application attributed to Xavi was actually a prank pulled off by a 19-year-old student from India.

The student, currently studying at VIT Vellore, used ChatGPT to generate a fake email posing as Xavi. He simply copied and pasted the AI-generated message and sent it to the All India Football Federation (AIFF), without attaching any CV, signature, or verification. Shockingly, AIFF accepted the email as genuine and even included it in their shortlist for the national team coach position.

The student later admitted to the prank, stating, “I just copied and pasted the ChatGPT response and mailed it. I didn’t attach a CV or anything, but I think they saw the mail and believed it.”

Following media coverage and public scrutiny, the AIFF conducted a review and officially confirmed that the emails claiming to be from Xavi (and even one supposedly from Pep Guardiola) were hoaxes. The incident has exposed serious gaps in AIFF’s vetting and verification process, raising concerns about their professionalism and credibility.

This episode serves as a wake-up call about the importance of digital verification in the age of AI and misinformation. It also highlights how a simple, unverified prank can spiral into international headlines—leaving a major sports body red-faced in the process.