GABBY AGBONLAHOR has revealed he was once fined £20,000 after flying to Miami having missed out on an England call-up.
The former Aston Villa forward, 36, earned three caps for his country during his 13-year career.
But after not making one of the England squads between 2012 and 2015, he decided to use the international break to fly to Florida.
He jetted off to America with team-mate Jordan Bowery, only for disaster to strike when their returning flight was delayed.
Speaking on talkSPORT, he said: “Under Paul Lambert [Villa manager at the time], I went to Miami. I went with a man called Jordan Bowery, who’s at Mansfield now. On the way back we got to the airport and our flight was delayed.
“Our flight was landing at Heathrow at 6:30am and we had to be at training for nine. It’s only an hour 40 minute drive but there was no room for delay… it was delayed for four hours.
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“We were working out the times, knowing we weren’t going to make it, so we were thinking of excuses.
“But I was like, do you know what, I get on with Paul Lambert, I’m just going to be honest and say the flight was delayed.”
And it turned out to be an extortionately expensive flight delay for the Villa star.
Agbonlahor continued: “Anyway, we got to training at 12pm and it had started at 10, the players were walking off the training pitch. But Paul was just laughing saying ‘it’s going to be an expensive one’.
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“It cost me £10,000 in cash and £10,000 out my wages. It was less for Jordan as he was on less. All because of British Airways.
“But because I was a senior pro and got on with the gaffer well [it was fine], but if I was a young lad like Jordan I’d have been nervous. But yeah, that was a funny story.”
Agbonlahor never received another cap for England – the last of which came in 2009.
He was called up to the squad by Fabio Capello in 2011 but did not feature.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
