David Ginola says he used to play the lottery in the hope of escaping the “slavery of work” in the Premier League.
Strange policy for a global sex symbol who earned millions playing football and flaunting his silky locks in L’Oreal adverts.
Here’s his explanation:
I don’t play the lottery now, but I used to when I was playing for Newcastle. It was because our housekeeper did it every week and she used to get me to join in with her and give her numbers.
I used to joke with her that we would win the jackpot and run away together.
Ah, he was trying to shag the housekeeper. That explains it.
If you don’t know who Salt Bae is, he’s a bloke who sprinkles salt in a vaguely amusing way, and has somehow turned that gag into a £50 million restaurant empire.
The Turkish chef – who we’re still hoping is actually a Sacha Baron Cohen character – recently opened a London outpost, where he serves £1500 steaks covered in edible gold leaf.
Naturally this soulless business lounge is a magnet for footballers like Wayne Rooney, David Beckham and, it turns out, former Spurs gaffer Mauricio Pochettino, who popped in the other day.
The Argentine – among the favourites for the Man United job – was filmed spunking ungodly sums of cash on overpriced, incoherent dross. He’ll fit right in at Old Trafford.
Another quality media appearance from Brooklyn Beckham, who arrived via private jet and 4×4 to tell the Evening Standard about his “sustainable fashion” campaign with fashion brand Superdry.
Some highlights:
His favourite clothes “There is a jacket I really connected with. It sits just above my bum which I like in my t-shirts and jackets.”
On the new Superdry store “I’m weird about little details so I love all the wood in the shop,” he says, stroking the table.
Non-leather shoes “The shoes are vegan — how is that possible?”
Getting engaged to his girlfriend “I took her up to, what’s that little thing called?” He looks at his two assistants sitting across the table, who tell him he means a gazebo. “Then I thought I lost the ring. I’ve never been engaged before obviously.”
On the COP26 climate conference What does he make of the efforts to be more sustainable at COP26? He looks blank until I tell him it was a big climate conference in Glasgow.
We wouldn’t normally waste your time with something as trivial as a tabloid love triangle, but Jack Grealish’s shagging exploits are throwing up some fairly entertaining quotes from his “pals”.
Grealish is allegedly triple timing his girlfriend Sacha Attwood with Love Island winner Amber Gill and Inbetweeners star Emily Atack.
Sadly details are scant, but we did enjoy this quote from a “source”:
Emily watched Jack in the Euros and thought he was fit. And for his part, Jack has been a fan of hers since she starred as Charlotte ‘Big Jugs’ Hinchcliffe in The Inbetweeners.
It’s been ten days since anyone saw Peng Shuai, the Wimbledon doubles champion who accused a senior Chinese politician of sexual abuse.
We feared the worst until Wednesday, when Chinese state media published an email which it claimed was from the tennis star.
Opening with “Hello everyone this is Peng Shuai”, the email retracts all the abuse allegations, which it says are “untrue”. Finally, it reassures readers: “I’m not missing, nor am I unsafe. I’ve just been resting at home and everything is fine.”
As The Upshot has long argued, French football is less a sport and more a dark psychodrama where you’re never quite sure if your teammate will stab you or stick their tongue down your throat.
Now that febrile atmosphere has spread to the women’s game – PSG’s Aminata Diallo (left) is behind bars, accused of ordering a vicious attack on teammate Kheira Hamraoui, who happens to be her rival for the holding midfielder role.
According to reports, Diallo gave Hamraoui a lift back from a team dinner, but when they arrived at her house, two masked hitmen appeared, dragged her from the car and beat her with iron bars, paying special attention to her legs.
With her rival in hospital, Diallo was promoted from warming the bench. And she turned in a star performance as her side thrashed Real Madrid 4-0 on Tuesday night.
But the afterglow of victory was short-lived – by Wednesday morning Versailles police were at her door. She denies all charges and was released soon after.
