SCOTLAND striker Steven Fletcher has admitted sending out the wrong impression about himself when he spent £260,000 on a Lamborghini Aventador supercar but that he had no regrets about treating himself to such an extravagant gift.
Fletcher was criticised when a picture appeared online with him and the car while he was at Sunderland, during a period when he and the team had suffered a blip in form.
The 28-year-old, now at Marseille, conceded people believed he was boasting about his wealth and from now on would stick with more modest modes of transport.
“We all make mistakes but I don’t regret buying my car,” said Fletcher. “The fans gave me dog’s abuse for that, of course they did. I am happy to stick to the little Citroen DS4 I got off Marseille now thanks. It’s a good car to drive.
“There was loads of stuff on social media, but it’s life, you learn. Everyone makes mistakes. It would have been worse if I had tweeted the picture of myself beside this car, but I didn’t.
“The guy I bought it from asked me if he could have a picture of me standing next to the car. ‘I said, ‘yeah.’ ‘Two weeks later it fell into someone else’s hands and they tweeted it.
“People thought I was a Billy Big Time. They never bothered with the classic Mini sitting next to it. That’s my pride and joy that car. But they saw the Lamborghini and got the wrong idea about me.
“I had a reputation when I was younger for showing off. But I was brought up in a normal family. I make a good living and had a poster of a Lamborghini on my wall when I was a kid. I had the chance to buy one and I did.
"But I have grown up now. I have a family to look after now and they come first. I have learned not to let people take pictures of me with flash cars.”
Fletcher, who earned over £50,000 a week at Sunderland, revealed he soon got sick of the attention driving a Lamborghini around the North East of England brought to him.
“When I used to drive the Lamborghini I could see everyone in my mirror taking pictures on their mobile phones,” he said. “And you’re thinking, ‘you should be concentrating on the road instead of taking pictures of me.
"It got to the point I didn’t enjoy driving it. I only had it two months. I ended up parking it on my drive and sticking a cover over it. I left the cover on there until I could get rid of the thing.”
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