We’ve all heard of body-doubles in movies, right? They are the people who stand in for lead actors who cannot or are not willing to do the hard physical action work.
But have you ever heard of wedding body doubles or stand-ins?
When a professional soccer player from Sierra Leone, Mohamed Buya Turay, was called up sooner than expected to start training with his new Swedish football club, Malmö FC, he had to drop everything and go.
“Everything” included his bride-to-be.
No, he didn’t break up with her, but he did “ditch” her at the alter.
But not entirely. Confusing, I know.
The couple had set a date for their wedding day, all plans in place, and no turning back.
But because the groom had to leave earlier than expected – before the wedding date – he was unable to attend his own wedding.
He decided to send his brother to take his place beside the bride on the wedding day.
Yep, the groom’s brother stepped in as his body-double.
Well, he couldn’t step into his brother’s soccer boots now, could he? So, the wedding shoes were the more sensible solution.
While the brother did stand-in on the day, the bride and groom were clever enough to take beautiful wedding pictures before the soccer star left for Sweden.
“We got married in Sierra Leone on July 21, but I wasn’t there because the Malmö Club asked me to come earlier,” Mohamed Buya Turay said in an op-ed for Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet. “We took the photo beforehand, so it looks like I was there.”
While there are many pictures of his brother and Turay’s wife doing wedding day things like cutting the cake, the soccer player posted only three, pre-wedding professional couple shots on his social media page, fooling many into thinking that he was at the wedding.
It does sound crazy and oh, so bizarre, but here’s what one can take away from this story: never believe what you see on social media, men take soccer seriously and brothers will do anything for each other.
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