Perusing various Twitter bios the other day, a query popped up: at what stage in one’s career, profile, age, number of followers or ego does a verified twitter account become a necessity? Or put differently, how hated or vilified must you be to have imitators, to need a verified account?

Amidst the hate campaign directed towards River Plate’s coach Ángel Cappa, which this blog covered last week, an extra string to the bow of hostility appeared. A false Twitter account.

Ángel Cappa told one interviewer just over a year ago that he didn’t even have a mobile phone. While Cappa updates his blog every week, believing that he tweets, or tuíts as it is in Spanish, is slightly far-fetched. As he himself admitted last week, he doesn’t know what Twitter is. @AngelCappa is not him.

It didn’t take a genius to work this out. There were pithy messages with untranslatable jokes about his players and satirical musings on how the game should be played. The bio, meanwhile, said he was ‘Professor of Philosophy and Psychopedagogy.’ It had some going all the same. ‘Is @Angel Cappa really him????’ asked the various argentweeters in and amongst various unintelligible acronymns. From across the Atlantic, admirers from Spain meanwhile rubbed their hands in delight at having the sage on twitter: ‘good to have you on board, master’ and the like.

Via his blog and in person, Cappa denied that the Twitter account is his, but the River Plate coach is not the only person from the world of Argentine football who has had to do so.

At times it can feel that there are only about four journalists covering football over here because so many double-, triple- or even quadruple-up, meaning that the same journalist presents the TV news, writes the column in the paper, leads the discussion on the afternoon radio show and then brings out the book. While this may be very good for their bank balance, airing your opinions 12 hours a day, no matter what the subject matter, is bound to wind certain people up.

Sebastián Vignolo is just one of the more ubiquitous journalists, broadcasters and match commentators about. Universally known as ‘pollo’ – yes, chicken – he set up @pollovignolo to air his thoughts, but he was soon immersed in a battle with @SebasVignolo which went so far as the threat of legal action. It blew over. Víctor Hugo Morales, the respected commentator most famous for his version of Maradona’s slalom against England in 1986, also had to confirm via his radio show that @vh590 is him.

Beyond puerile battles over identity, Twitter is a fantastic resource, and it is one that Argentines have fully embraced. Sticking with the journalists, there is @chavoreal. For some reason, Mr. Diego ‘Chavo’ Fuchs swapped the ‘k’ for an ‘h’ on his Twitter page, but his newspaper column betrays this change. Despite his offensive surname, he is opinionated, impassioned, goes against the grain and fights with everyone. Brilliant stuff.

@JPVarsky is the heavyweight of the tuíters, so much so that he also needs @VarskySports to divide his traffic. With nearly 200,000 combined followers, that’s a lot of #ffs.

When @f_pacini joined @JPVarsky as a La Nación columnist recently, there was as much Twitter excitement as The Day Henry Winter Responded To Somebody. Offering opinions and information in 140 characters is also the reporter Maradona told ‘you take it up the arse,’ @TotiPasman.

Before moving on, make sure not to confuse @diegotorres with @diegotorresro, else you’ll be confusing horrible latin pop with erudite insights into the goings on at Real Madrid from the Argentine journalist at El País. @latorrediego, the ex-Boca forward famed for the ‘Boca is a brothel’ quote which keeps Olé in headlines to this day, is one of the best match summarisers around.

And if there is too much testosterone flying about the place, you would do well to follow @emipizarro, Boca know-it-all @ClauVillapun or @Angelalerena.

While it’s no surprise that the media have taken on Twitter, what about the players?

National team captain @mascheranojavi went through a quiet spell after the World Cup, but returned with the rescue of the Chilean miners and seems to be back to regular duties. Meanwhile, one local journalist recently wanted to know what @aguerosergiokun thought of Independiente’s win over Racing. Predictably, there are thousands of Leo Messi accounts, some with a remarkably fine grasp of English.

@ezequielgaray wrote in Jan that he is discovering Twitter, but clearly wasn’t too impressed with what he found as that remains his only tuít. And Fernando Gago only has 70 characters to express himself, as he shares @GiseyFer with his tennis playing señorita, Gisela Dulko.

Racing’s new hero Gio Moreno has taken a CR7 approach to his twitter profile with @g10moreno, inviting trouble when he inevitably moves to Europe only to find the number 10 squad number already occupied.

Meanwhile, up in Rosario, there is a stronghold of tweeters at Newell’s. Standing out from several first teamers on Twitter is club captain @Flacoschiavi, who has a surprisingly ethereal and poetic avatar given his robust style, but can be counted on for plenty of insider information from the club. Newell’s keeper, @Sebaperatta22, also offers updates, banter, battles with opposition fans and dialogue with referees. Midfielder @lucasbernardi7, after taking some criticism in the media, recently piped up with ‘friends in the capital, as soon as I have 5 minutes I’ll bomb you, for being disrespectful and ill-informed. Regards.’

Two legends are lurking - @caniggiaclaudio follows @DiegoAMaradona, who in turn follows Riquelme, but before you jump to conclusions about a very public reconciliation between two 10s, it’s Larissa, not Juan Román.

Finally, there is @Alfiobasilejr who announced his arrival on the scene with furious allegations that Maradona conducted a coup to eject his father from the national team coach post. His bio reveals his interests include ‘football, tennis, whisky, beer, the night, love’, and his musings cover diverse terrain, from further Maradona-bashing, to tell-tale signs that your partner is cheating on you, open-ended tweets to see if anybody is up to any mischief, or simply, ‘Hello.’ Inspired genius.