>The thing I find oddest here is that the his friends are now set as following the new account of the football player. Seems like at the very least there is a bug that needs to be fixed there.

I doubt it's a bug. Someone probably complained saying something like "Hey, this guy isn't Andres Iniesta. Someone's squatting on his name to get extra hits." If that's the case anyone following that account must have meant to follow the athlete.

They should have contacted the author first, of course, but companies offering free services don't have the money for customer support.