Soccer Star found alive… four years after death

Soccer Star found alive… four years after death

In a story for the ages, German newspaper Bild has reported that former Democratic Republic of Congo soccer player Hiannick Kamba has returned to Germany after being assumed dead for four years. Kamba was reported dead in 2016 after a car crash in his native country but upon his re-emergence has told authorities that at the time of the crash he was with some “companions” in the Congo who took all his documents, phone, and money before leaving him in the middle of the night.

His then-wife (now ex-wife) mourned his death with a funeral and provided what is now thought to be a forged death certificate to authorities in order to receive his life insurance policy, which was thought to be in the six-figure range.

Kamba arrived in Germany in 1986 with the rest of his family and was allowed to stay in 2005 when the rest of his family were deported due to being offered a contract with Bundesliga club FC Schalke 04. At the time of his “death”, he was playing for VfB Hüls a German amateur side while working as a chemical technician at an energy supply company in Gelsenkirchen, the job he returned to once back in Germany.

Apparently, Kamba went to the German Embassy in the Congo capital of Kinshasa in 2018 to prove he wasn’t dead but without papers and documents, which had been taken from him on that night in 2016, he was unable to prove who he was and things stalled. How he was able to prove this without those documents has not yet been reported.

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His ex-wife (who has yet to be named) is being investigated for possible insurance fraud although no charges have yet been made. It is also unclear if Kamba had any involvement in the scheme although he has claimed his innocence and will serve as a witness in the case against her ex-wife.