Footballers’ worst phobias from David Beckham’s slimy critters to Gazza’s darkish secret

On Mar 31, 2025

James Moore reveals the strangest and most notorious fears of our favourite footballers over the years following Wayne Rooney’s big fin fear revelation over the weekend

20:38, 31 Mar 2025

Wayne Rooney has shared his biggest phobia (Image: AFP via Getty Images)

He was famous for landing balls in the back of the net…but it turns out that former goal machine Wayne Rooney is scared of “big fish”!

As we revealed yesterday, the ex-Man Utd and England striker confessed that he has a fear of ‘fins from the deep’ while working as a TV pundit at the weekend.

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But the soccer legend, who later appeared to wee in public, isn’t the only famous footballer with a phobia, as JAMES MOORE reveals…

Flying

As a striker he was pretty good in the air, but Dutch ace Dennis Bergkamp is so afraid of flying he travelled by land and sea to matches abroad.

The not-so flying Dutchman, Dennis Bergkamp(Image: ExpressStar)

He said: “I just freeze. I get panicky.” The star, now 55, was even nicknamed the Non-Flying Dutchman. Fellow former Arsenal player, Paul Merson, also suffered for a fear of going on aeroplanes.

Paul Gascoigne had a strong preference for light over darkness(Image: Getty Images)

Darkness

For years England legend Paul Gascoigne was scared of the dark.

Teammates said that during his playing days the ace would leave lights and the TV on at night. But he conquered his fear on the 2023 Channel 4 show Scared of the Dark, after spending 180 hours in the pitch black. The 57-year-old said: “People always question my mental strength but my success on this series proves that I’m strong.”

People are scared of frogs, who knew?(Image: Getty Images)

Frogs

It’s freaky amphibians that get Ex-England skipper David Beckham,

49, jumping. After filming in the Amazon rainforest for a BBC TV documentary, where he came across a dangerous orange one, he said: “The frog I was scared of. I’m not a big frog fan. I can’t lie.”

One wonders whether David Beckham had a new opinion of frogs during his playing spell in Paris(Image: Getty Images)

Cats and dogs

In 2004 former Ipswich Town midfielder Matt Holland, 50,

divulged that most critters give him the willies. Even moggies would leave him feline out of sorts: “I am scared of most animals and won’t have cats or dogs in the house…”

ALF terrified a future Premier League and France star as a kid

TV aliens

French international Olivier Giroud, who has also played for Arsenal and Chelsea, opened up about an odd phobia he had as a kid –

American sitcom character ALF. The 38-year-old striker said: “Alf the Alien, my God he was so ugly and I was so scared of him.”

Olivier Giroud doesn’t do ugly(Image: Getty Images)

Foreign elevators

England and Man Utd defender Phil Jones, 33, once revealed: “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.”

Watch out Wazza!(Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Tallness

While playing at Aston Villa in the early 2000s, manager Graham Taylor said of 6ft7in striker Peter Crouch, now 44: “One of the main problems for Peter is that he still has a bit of a phobia about being so tall.”

How we imagine Gazza may have looked with the lights off (Image: Getty Images)

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Everything!

Before starring on ITV’s I’m A Celeb in 2016, ex-England defender Wayne Bridge, 44 said he was afraid of rats, spiders, cockroaches, snakes, claustrophobia and sleeping in the jungle: “I’m so nervous and scared of everything.” When footie legend and pundit Ian Wright, 61, went on the show’s 2019 series he confessed to having a phobia of…polystyrene.