Andres Iniesta is a household name in the world of football – but it’s also the name of a father from Madrid who, in his own words, “likes to take pictures of his kids, yummy food and interesting buildings”.
The namesakes had never crossed paths until photo-sharing social network Instagram brought them together in not great circumstances; over the username @ainiesta.
The Madrid-based Iniesta has taken to blogging site Medium to tell the story of his encounter with Barcelona’s captain, and the Facebook-owned service.
“Without previous notice, Instagram decided to close my account,” explains Iniesta. “The reason was that I ‘infringed the Terms of Use’.”
Andres then tried – and failed – to get in touch with both Instagram and Facebook on several occasions to find out why his account had been suspended.
It was after a few days and still without a response that some of Andres’ friends told him the other Iniesta – the Barcelona skipper – had appeared on their Following lists.
“And they don’t even like Football!” he wrote. Friends then began to see updates from the Spain international – probably of his impressive career trophy haul – rather than of Andres’ favourite meals and buildings from around Madrid.
As a last resort, Andres took to Medium because he had received no response from Facebook or Instagram, and to vent his frustration.
He signed off his original post by writing: “It’s clear that my account has been ‘stolen’, but I don’t imagine Iniesta the player being behind this himself. Probably this has to do with his PR or Community Management agency. And worst of all, Instagram has definitely contributed to this situation.
“I consider that my rights (we still have some on the internet) have been violated somehow. I haven’t done anything wrong and have lost not only my pictures, but being able to share important moments with my friends and family.
“What pains me is that all of this has happened without any explanation, not even a twitter response from Instagram.
“I’m not a celebrity, and I don’t want to be one. I just don’t like things being taken away from me.”
Clearly blogging is the way to get noticed, as Andres returned to Medium just five hours after posting to add an update.
“My account has been restored, but still no news from Instagram about what happened or an apology,” he wrote.
Though he didn’t have to wait much longer, as a further update from Iniesta confirmed that his namesake had been in touch to apologise personally, and say he had nothing to do with it. Instagram too confirmed they had been in touch, and that all was now well.
“We made a mistake here and restored the account as soon as we learned about it. Our apologies go out to Mr Iniesta for the trouble we caused him,” a spokesman for the social network said.
We assume they’re referring to the Mr Iniesta of Madrid.
If you’re interested in football, the other Iniesta can be found on Instagram as @andresiniesta8.