AN EXPERIENCED journalist and TV presenter has been left embarrassed after securing an exclusive interview with Brazil coach Luiz Felipe Scolari – only to find out he had actually spoken to a professional lookalike.

OOPS: A journalist has been forced to apologise after interviewing a
Scolari lookalike and mistaking him for the real thing

Mario Sergio Conti could not believe his luck when he sat down on a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Sao Paulo and the man charged with leading Brazil to their sixth World Cup was sat next him.

Conti did what any good journalist would do and conducted an impromptu interview with "Scolari" which was then published on two of Brazil's leading websites.

"Everything was a huge misunderstanding," explained impersonator Wladimir Palomo, who was in Rio to appear in a TV comedy show as Scolari.

The story has taken Brazil by storm and the websites who published the interviews have been forced into humiliating apologies.

To make matters even stranger the Scolari lookalike was sat next to a man who had modelled himself on Brazil superstar Neymar, further convincing Conti he was sat next to the real Brazil coach.

"It was a mistake," Conti told a reporter from Folha de S. Paulo, one of the papers to publish the interview.

"I really though he was Scolari. But there was no bad faith involved."

"At least this mistake has not harmed anyone, it has influenced the elections or hit the stock markets."

The real Scolari and Neymar take on Cameroon in Brasilia on Monday night needing a win to ensure they progress from Group A.