Hero Burnley goalkeeper Nick Pope confused with world’s leading UFO expert and former government agent with same name
BURNLEY hero Nick Pope is ruining the life of the world’s greatest UFO spotter with his stunning saves.
The 25-year-old Clarets’ keeper made his debut on Sunday after Tom Heaton was injured on 36 minutes against Crystal Palace
The Clarets No2 kept a clean sheet – that cost Frank de Boer his job – with a point-blank save from Christian Benteke the highlight.
Twitter went mad for the former Welling and Aldershot loanee but he shares his name with the same Nick Pope who ran the British government's UFO project and is the world's leading authority on UFOs, the unexplained and conspiracy theories.
After getting string of messages, the alien hunter addressed all his new followes.
He wrote: “No, I don't have a second career as a goalkeeper for Burnley FC.”
But that only sparked a sting of replies as fans started to enjoy the coincidence.
Eric Wroot said: “Come visit Burnley, there's definitely extra terrestrial life on some of the town centre benches!!!!”
Deve Edmonson said: “Great save from Benteke and an all round composed performance. You look different in your profile picture, must be bad light.”
The Gunners fan clearly saw the funny side to his new misguided fame and joined in when followers asked him mix of football trivia and conspiracy questions.
@caino_wins said: “Is Men in Black a true story? and are you glad Mane is out for Saturday's trip to Anfield?”
And Gooner Pope replied: “The only Man in Black you need to worry about is the referee. And yes, I'm glad Mane's out, though I'm worried about Firmino and Salah.”
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Pope - who has spoken at Oxford and Cambridge and consulted on Hollywood films like The X-Files: I Want to Believe – has his next fixture on Saturday at the Phoenix UFO Network in Arizona.
And he has warned his new audience not to expect any goal-kicks or fingertip saves.
He wrote: “On Saturday I'm giving a talk in Phoenix on the MoD's UFO files, not trying to keep a clean sheet against Liverpool.”
Nick Pope – the modest Burnley keeper – has nothing to do with space but he was over the moon with the three points at the weekend.
He said: “They were excellent in front of me. They talked to me and helped each other out.
"They were on it all day with blocks and tackles.
"The lads in front of them worked really hard as a unit as well.
"We work hard on our shape as a team, we were solid, there were last ditch tackles and blocks.
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