London's £150k-per-year Deputy Mayor for the Environment, who faked a football career, meets Declan Rice

Mete Coban MBE was attending the NBA in London

Jan 19, 2026

Yesterday Mete Coban MBE, London’s £151,465 per year Deputy Mayor for Environment and Energy, posted about his meeting with Arsenal’s Declan Rice. They were both attending the NBA in London.

Football is never far from Coban’s mind. Last year The Times reported on how Coban “faked a football career on social media”. Here are a few paragraphs from that (rather astonishing) article:

“Turkish football fans are among the most passionate in the world, so it was no surprise that in 2011, when it emerged that one of their own was set for an unlikely transfer to the European giants Real Madrid it made waves across the country.
“Mete Serdar Coban, a 17-year-old left-back, was at the centre of it all; born in northern Cyprus but raised in London, he told a host of sports journalists and interviewers that he had been scouted by the Istanbul side Galatasaray before transferring to Inter Milan. Now, after four years in Italy, he was off to Europe’s biggest club. His claims were buttressed by social media posts and a grainy YouTube video of “highlights” from his Inter days.”
“There was one problem: the entire tale was fabricated. The closest Mete Serdar Coban had come to football stardom was a flunked trial at the other Madrid side, Atletico, a few years earlier. He slipped away from the limelight almost as quickly as he appeared.”

The piece featured a photograph of “Turkish newspaper Hurriyet compar[ing] Coban to the Champions League winner Maicon”:

On social media someone has also found a clip of Coban discussing his career with Inter Milan, according to the translation from Turkish, where he claims “this year, I’m going to Real Madrid”. Definitely worth a watch.

When he’s not attending the NBA or preaching about climate change, Coban is a director of the charity “My Life My Say”, which nudges young voters to the ballot box. Its partners include Ben & Jerry’s and the Tony Blair Institute:

Alastair Campbell is also a big supporter:

While CEO of the charity, and serving as Hackney Council’s Cabinet Member for Climate Change, Environment and Transport, Coban racked up 40,000 air miles:

So it’s only natural that he was then promoted to London’s £150k per year Deputy Mayor for the Environment. Never mind his fake football career leading him to rub shoulders with Arsenal stars.

Nice work if you can get it!

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