5 Footballer Phobias That Sure To Leave You Surprised!

Former EPL footballer Mikael Forssell posted a picture on Twitter stating his phobia for ‘cats’.

Yes, the former Chelsea striker nearly went missing training due to the feline intruder. Forssell was so afraid to get into his car because of an ominous looking cat resting on his front wheel.

Thus, putting the phobias into perspective, we thought of other professional footballers who too had the threat from someone!

Even as these start studded footballers are at the top of the sport, they train persistently to get rid of any faults they may have in their game. But what we want to know is what do they dread the most?

Below are some of the top 5 Footballer phobias that will leave you a bit surprised!

Phil Jones – Fear of foreign lifts
Manchester United defender Phil Jones might scare the hell out of you with those ‘expressions’ on the field but here’s something that scares him the most – getting into an elevator! Yes, you’ve heard it right. The Englishman is fine taking the lift when he’s in the country but as soon as he steps foot on a foreign elevator, the former will rather take the stairs. He says, “When I go abroad, I can’t go in lifts, I don’t mind it in England, but I can’t do it when I go away. When I was young we went away on holiday to Greece and we got stuck in a lift for a few hours. It was horrible. I felt so claustrophobic.”

 

Dennis Bergkamp – Fear of flying
Many experts suggested that Arsenal’s terrible outing in Europe in the pre-Wenger era was solely down to the exclusion of their star striker Dennis Bergkamp. That’s because the Dutchman had the public fear of flying. The forward was regularly unavailable for selection for their Champions League fixtures away from home and due to this; he earned the nickname, ‘the non-flying Dutchman.’ His fear began in 1994 when travelling to America with the Netherlands squad for the World Cup.

 

David Beckham – Fear of frogs
For all his style and suave in his play and looks, David Beckham had one little twitch – phobia! The former Real Madrid and Manchester United player had embarked on an Amazon adventure for the BBC a few months ago and since then got realised he didn’t like frogs that much. He said, “The frog I was scared of. I’m not a big frog fan. I can’t lie. It was orange. We were told it was dangerous. I was a little bit nervous about that.”

 

Matt Holland – Fear of cats and dogs
EPL player Matt Holland also developed a certain phobia that unlike his counterparts was a very ‘niche’. The former Ipswich man was top draw during his playing days and made 223 consecutive appearances for Ipswich but ‘Matty’ was scared of the dogs and cats. He said, “I am scared of most animals and won’t have cats or dogs in the house but I really enjoy horses.”

 

Peter Crouch – Tall order
EPL veteran Peter Crouch often menaced the opposition defences with his height and many defenders often targeted the former Liverpool man. But did you know, Crouch had the phobia of his height? In 2002, Aston Villa made the 5 million pounds signing of Portsmouth striker Peter Crouch but the 6ft 7in striker struggled to find the back of the net. When asked why Crouch was struggling for form, here’s what arrived, “One of the main problems for Peter is that he still has a bit of a phobia about being so tall.”