Steven Fletcher, a new Wrexham signing, allegedly left a £260,000 Lamborghini to avoid being labeled an egotistical hotshot.
After being released by Dundee United at the end of last season, the former Scotland international, 36, joined the newly promoted League Two club on a free transfer this week.
Fletcher has more than a few dollars to toss around after spending the majority of his career in top flight football, and he used to have a rather remarkable automobile collection.
In 2015, a photo of him posing next to a quarter-million-pound Lamborghini Aventador (with a swanky Bentley Continental in the background) went viral, infuriating Sunderland fans who accused him of being more concerned with money than the club’s relegation dogfight at the time.
In reaction, Fletcher ditched the Lamborghini in favor of a more modest 4X4. He claimed he was “stitched up” by the vehicle dealer, who encouraged him to stand in front of his new purchase before subsequently revealing the photo, but believed that dumping the car was worth it because of the online backlash.
“Everyone makes mistakes, but I don’t regret purchasing my car.” “Of course, the fans verbally abused me for it,” he admitted in 2016. “It would have been worse if I had tweeted a photo of myself next to this car, but I didn’t.” I got a stick for posing for a picture beside my car.
“The person I bought it from asked for a picture of me. I consented, and two weeks later it was in the hands of someone else, who tweeted it.
“Everyone thought I was a Billy Big Time… They spotted the Lamborghini and assumed the worst about me. I had a reputation for flaunting things when I was younger, but I was raised in a normal family.”
Fortunately for Fletcher, Sunderland avoided relegation by only three points that season. Half a year later, he was loaned out to Ligue 1 club Marseille before leaving the Stadium of Light at the end of the season and signing for Sheffield Wednesday.
After four years at Hillsborough, he went to Stoke City in 2020, and subsequently to Dundee United in 2022. He formerly played for Hibbs, Burnley, and Wolves.