After being presumed dead for nearly four years, former soccer player Hiannick Kamba was found alive and well.
The German newspaper Bild discovered that the now-33-year-old-man has been working for a German energy company. Kamba was once a promising young player for Bundesliga’s FC Schalke 04. But in 2016, it was reported that Kamba had been killed during a car accident in his native Democratic Republic of Congo.
Once it was discovered he was alive, Kamba told Bild he had actually been taken advantage of by his friends. Kamba says his “companions had left him during the night while on a trip to the interior of the Congo in January 2016 and they took his papers, money and telephone.” He went to the Congo’s German embassy to prove he was alive in 2018, but his lack of documentation hindered this process.
It’s unclear how Kamba managed to survive. He was located in Western Germany, where he now works as a chemical technician for an energy supply company. According to German prosecutor Anette Milk, Kamba’s ex-wife is now being investigated for fraud because she allegedly forged documents to collect on his six-figure life insurance policy. Kamba tells the publication that he was unaware of his wife’s actions. Neither Kamba’s wife nor his “companions” were identified. Together, the former couple shares a 10-year-old child.
“Mr. Kamba has recently returned to Germany,” Milk said per People. “There are no reasonable doubts about his identity.”
Kamba played youth soccer for the respected Schalke. His family was deported from Germany to Congo in 2005, but Kamba was allowed to stay due to his status as a soccer star. At the time of his faked death, he was playing for the VfB Huls and had moved around the bottom tier of German soccer.
