A remarkable and controversial story once swirled around one of the Premier League’s most reliable defenders, a player respected for his professionalism on the pitch but whose private life allegedly told a very different tale.
According to reports that emerged more than a decade ago, a well-known top-flight star was said to have lived a double life for several years, hiding his true identity while conducting a secret affair that later became tabloid gold.
The player at the centre of the claims was Sylvain Distin, a name familiar to fans across English football. Distin built a long and successful career in the Premier League, making more than 450 appearances, a record number for a foreign outfield player at the time.
Calm, powerful and dependable, he featured for Newcastle United, Manchester City, Portsmouth and Everton, winning admiration wherever he played. He lifted the FA Cup with Portsmouth in 2008, captained Manchester City during a difficult transitional period, and became a mainstay at Everton, where his physical condition earned him the nickname “Cyborg” among team-mates.
Yet despite all of that success, Distin never won a single international cap for France, a strange footnote in an otherwise impressive career. Still, it was not his absence from the national team that later grabbed headlines, but an alleged off-field saga that sounded more like fiction than reality.
Reports claimed that during his time at Everton, Distin carried on a secret relationship with a blonde air hostess for around three years. The extraordinary part was not just the length of the alleged affair, but the way it supposedly began.
According to the story, Distin initially told the woman he was a milkman. Not a footballer, not even an athlete of note, but someone who delivered dairy products for a living. It was said to be the first of several identities he used to hide the truth.
As the story went, the pair met on a night out near Distin’s home in Cheshire. Everton players were present, and conversation flowed easily, but it was Distin who caught the woman’s attention.
When phone numbers were exchanged, she reportedly had no idea she was speaking to a Premier League footballer earning tens of thousands of pounds a week. Instead, she believed she had met a fit, charming man with a mysterious job and an impressive physique.
As contact continued, suspicions began to grow. To explain his lifestyle and physical condition, Distin was later said to have told her he was a professional tennis player, and at other times a competitive cyclist.
The excuses reportedly shifted whenever questions became harder to answer. The truth, according to those accounts, finally unravelled when the woman spotted a photo of Distin in an Everton kit on his messaging profile. Even then, he allegedly tried to explain it away by claiming the picture was of his twin brother.
Friends of the woman later said she was trusting by nature and genuinely shocked when she discovered who he really was. By that point, the relationship had allegedly already become physical, with claims of secret hotel meetings, encounters in cars, and even trysts outdoors near his home.
Explicit text messages were also said to have been exchanged, along with revealing photos. The tone of the reports painted a picture of a relationship driven by passion, secrecy and constant deception.
What made the situation more troubling was the claim that Distin was in a long-term relationship at the time and had a child. When confronted, he was said to have told the woman that he remained with his partner only for the sake of his daughter.
Friends later suggested the air hostess hoped he would eventually leave his family, believing his assurances that the relationship was effectively over. That moment never came.
Despite learning the truth about his identity and personal life, the pair were said to have continued seeing each other occasionally. Meetings allegedly happened once or twice a month, usually arranged around Distin’s football schedule.
When Everton were away from home, he was claimed to have sent messages and photos from team hotels, always careful not to attract attention. It was even reported that he avoided using his distinctive Bentley when meeting her, choosing discretion over comfort.
Eventually, reality set in. The woman reportedly realised the situation would never become more than a secret affair and chose to end it before it caused further damage. Soon after, details of the story began to surface publicly, turning a private matter into a very public talking point.
Football fans, as they often do, responded with humour rather than sympathy. Opposition supporters picked up on the milkman tale, turning it into terrace chants. During a return to Manchester City with Everton, Distin was mocked with songs joking about early morning deliveries.
Similar chants followed him elsewhere, including pre-season matches, where crowds sang about him being a milkman rather than a footballer.
The story, whether entirely true or embellished over time, became one of those strange Premier League legends that refuses to disappear. It stood in sharp contrast to Distin’s quiet, disciplined image on the pitch.
To many fans, it was a reminder that footballers, despite their fame and status, can still become embroiled in messy, human situations, sometimes of their own making.
For Distin, the allegations never appeared to affect his performances. He continued to play at a high level for Everton for several more seasons, maintaining his reputation as a reliable defender until the end of his career.
But long after his final match, the tale of secret identities, hidden relationships and the now-infamous “milkman” disguise remains one of the more bizarre stories associated with the Premier League era.
