Twitter user 'Marcello' abused after Brazil own goal

London-based model Marcello Ferri, left, received Twitter abuse meant for Brazilian left-back Marcelo Vieira. Credit: @Marcello/Reuters

A British model has been inundated with abusive messages from football fans confusing him with Brazil national Marcelo Vieira, who scored an own-goal in his side's World Cup opening match against Croatia.

Some football fans took to Twitter to vent their fury over the footballer's on-pitch gaffe, but failed to notice the user they were aiming their frustrations at spelled his name differently - and had been tweeting at the same time Vieira was playing.

Marcello Ferri, who uses the handle @Marcello, has seen his plea for the messages to instead be aimed at the footballer retweeted more than 11,000 times.

Ferri told ITV News he was alarmed by the nature of some of the messages - one of which read "I hope you die".

"I was in the gym and not watching the game when I started to receive a barrage of abuse and very threatening messages on Twitter," he said.

Marcelo, centre, watches as his scuffed clearance hits the back of the net. Credit: Reuters

"My phone was going crazy and it wasn't immediately obvious that the tweets were in fact meant to be directed at Brazilian player Marcelo Viera," he explained. "The content of the tweets had me very concerned as to what I had done to prompt such reactions.

"I can now see the funny side, however it did give me an insight to the online trolling people in the public eye are subjected to and wouldn't like to have been in Marcelo's shoes last night!"

Get all the latest on the tournament on ITV's Sport's World Cup page.