Brazilian side Flamengo reportedly made an unusual mistake by sending a payment to the wrong Joao Gomes.

Wolves midfielder Gomes joined the club during the January transfer window from Flamengo on a £15m five-and-a-half year deal. 

As part of the deal, Gomes was set to receive a fee around £306,000 for his economic rights.

However, Brazilian publication Globo have reported that a namesake who played for Flamengo’s basketball team instead received the money.

The basketball player Gomes, had left the club in 2020, and revealed he was scared upon hearing about the transaction.

He said: ‘I hadn’t even seen it, I was traveling with my godmother. It was when I arrived at her house that my mother texted asking about some money sent. 

I was scared and even scared because until then I didn’t know where the money was from.

“I thought someone had the wrong deposit or something. My godfather also said that I had to be careful because someone could be using my account to launder money”.

Flamengo are said to have realised on Friday that they had made the payment to the wrong Joao Gomes.

They reportedly contacted the Federal Court of Rio De Janeiro who blocked the deposit, acknowledging that the money did not belong to the basketball player.

As reported by Sports Witness, the court said: ‘It appears, prima facie, that there was a serious error on the part of Clube de Regatas do Flamengo in transferring a large amount of which the athlete João Victor Gomes da Silva (“João Gomes”), the different person, his namesake, is the beneficiary, with another enrolment in the Individual Taxpayer Registration.

Therefore, as a logical corollary, the obligation to return the amount deposited by mistake, in protection of objective good faith and to avoid unjust enrichment.

The basketball player Gomes now reportedly plays the sport in the amateur leagues, while the Wolves midfielder has made three appearances since joining the Premier League side.