Alex Scott – who hosts Football Focus today (Saturday, August 31) – once revealed she was almost kidnapped by a “sicko” Uber driver in Russia who told her: “Girls like you, I kill.”
The 39-year-old Soccer Aid star said her body went “numb” and was only let go by the rouge driver after she claimed she knew President Putin.
The horrific incident took place while Alex was covering the World Cup in Moscow for the BBC in 2018.
Soccer Aid star Alex Scott almost kidnapped by Uber driver
Writing in her memoir, How (Not) To Be Strong, Alex explained how the terrifying situation unfolded.
The football pundit recalled how after meeting up with a pal for a drink, instead of using the BBC-approved pre-booked cars, she opted to use a local Uber instead.
However within minutes of getting into the car, Alex knew something was wrong and moments into the 15-minute drive, the rouge driver turned on her.
“A stacked bald man, stocky, and wearing a grin on his face suddenly turned,” Alex penned in her memoir.
In quotes obtained by the Mirror, Alex revealed that the driver chillingly told her she wasn’t going home.
Tonight I am not taking you home. You come with me.
She wrote: “He looked at me and said – in English – ‘Tell them they will never see you again.'”
Alex Scott said Uber driver told her ‘I am not taking you home’
After Alex told him that she didn’t understand, the driver took out his phone and used Google translate to tell her exactly what he planned to do to her.
The presenter admitted her body went “numb” as via the translator, he told her: “Tonight I am not taking you home. You come with me.”
He then began telling her, “horrible, terrible things: how he takes girls like me, how they never make it home”.
Panicked, Alex said she then messaged her agent while in the car and told him she wasn’t back within 15 minutes, he should send out a search party.
But then Alex received a message from the diver which read: “Girls like you, I kill.”
How did Alex manage to escape?
Still stuck in the car with the rouge driver, Alex remembered how she had met the Russian president Vladimir Putin earlier that day.
In an attempt to diffuse the situation, she told the driver that she was meeting him again tomorrow.
She said: “He started laughing. ‘No one sees Putin.’ I was scrambling now, pulling up photos from the morning’s visit to the Kremlin that had made newspaper headlines. His laughter died and I could see the cogs whirring as he tried to process what I was showing him. ‘If I don’t see Putin tomorrow, he will find you.'”
Following the claim that she was meeting with Putin, the driver quickly switched back to the original journey.
Alex then added how the driver tried to touch her legs and kiss her as they pulled up to her hotel.
Read more: Footballer Alex Scott: Why did she retire and when did she stop playing football?
Football Focus airs from 12pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer on Saturdays.
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