How an Indian IT Consultant Became a Dutch Soccer Star on Twitter

Robin van Persie is one of the world's top soccer players, starring for Manchester United and the Dutch national team. Many fans know him simply as "RVP."

Ravi Visvesvaraya Sharada Prasad is a man in India who does IT and telecom consulting for a living. He uses the Twitter handle @rvp

That's van Persie in the above photo. Here's Prasad:

courtesy @rvp

When RVP the player scored a hat trick to help Man U win its record 20th English league title on Monday night, RVP the Twitter account was inundated with thousands of messages from fans who were both overjoyed and angry about the result

You've probably guessed the problem by now: All those messages went to Prasad, who had just been minding his business over in India. (The soccer star's actual Twitter handle is the much more unwieldy @Persie_Official.) Read more...