I’ve spent £85k trying to bag a footballer – so far I’ve only bedded one but I won’t give up hope

Because all she wants is the ultimate Three Lions trophy husband.

10

10

For Carly, 39, is a self-confessed wannabe Wag, and has spent the past 18 years — and a staggering £85,000 — trying to score with a Premiership player.

Since she was 21, Carly, who runs her own cleaning business, has spent a fortune on expensive clothes, handbags, Botox, fillers and fake tan in a relentless quest to bag her big-money man.

And age is no object — she has her eyes on dashing midfielder Jack Grealish, 12 years her junior at 27.

Carly, who lives in Bracknell, Berks, with her sons aged 19 and 12, says: “I’d love that luxurious Wag lifestyle. I look at them with their gorgeous houses and incredible cars and I want to have that too.

“I’ve met a few footballers and even had a one-night stand with a former Premiership and England player, but it never came to anything. But I’m not giving up hope.

“I look good, I’m fun and I know how to treat a man well — I won’t rest until I have a ring on my finger.”

Carly insists on always looking her best. Every two weeks she has a gel manicure and her eyebrows threaded or waxed and sometimes tinted, which totals £2,000 a year.

On top of the £600 she splurges on hair extensions every year — and which she has maintained every eight to ten weeks at a cost of £120 a time — her bill for Botox and ­fillers comes to £1,300 a year.

10

10

10

Fake tans and sunbeds rack up a ­further £400 a year and she spends £1,800 on clothes annually, as she never likes to be seen in the same outfit twice.

Carly blows thousands on designer handbags, sunglasses and jewellery from such brands as Louis Vuitton, and her excessive spending means she has to use her overdraft and credit cards to cover the cost.

But she has no regrets.

She says: “I see it all as an investment and though I’m getting older I look better than ever.

“I’ve got naturally big boobs but I wouldn’t rule out going under the knife in the future. I’ll do whatever it takes.”

Carly’s love of football — and the players especially — started when she was young.

Her dad worked as a football coach for various local clubs and he had contacts with Chelsea, where her brothers were team mascots.

She would go along with them and was allowed into select areas including the changing rooms, where she met the players — and their other halves.

10

After getting pregnant at 19 during a brief fling and again at 27 with a long-term ­partner, she never stopped searching for a footballer, regularly going to nightclubs which were a favourite among players, such as Chinawhite in London.

She says: “It all felt so glamorous. I longed to be part of that world.

“I worked as a promotions girl at boxing and football matches, so I always knew what was going on and I was often invited to parties.

“I’d always make a beeline for the footballers and hope that they’d notice me dressing as provocatively as I could to show off my figure, even if I was in a ­relationship.

“Some of the other girls would start kissing each other to get their attention, but I didn’t do that. They’d also try to barge me out of the way and literally cling to a footballer if they’d got their attention.”

It was during the 2006 World Cup that the term Wag was coined — for the players’ Wives and Girlfriends — with Victoria Beckham, Cheryl Cole and Coleen Rooney widely acknowledged as the queen bees of the Wag world.

Seeing their popularity fuelled Carly’s obsession.

She says: “I was in my early 20s then and they all looked so perfectly groomed and had the best life ­imaginable, supporting their men while dripping with ­jewels and designer handbags. I wanted to be just like them.”

In 2010 her efforts paid off when she spent the night with a then-Premiership player after partying at Fabric nightclub in London.

10

10

10

She says: “He invited me back to his hotel and I was so excited. We had an incredible night of sex and he was lovely to me.

“I was asked to leave my phone outside the bedroom as lots of players had been burnt by girls ­taking pictures of their ­conquests then selling them to newspapers. But I’d never do that.

“Sadly it came to ­nothing but it was a ­confidence boost as he could have had his pick of the girls there and he chose me.”

Carly now does less promotion work, focusing more on her cleaning business — and several of her clients have been ­famous footballers.

She says: “Even when the players aren’t signed to a top club they have beautiful homes and expensive cars like Range Rovers.

“I sometimes think their wives don’t do enough around the house. If I was married to a footballer I’d treat him so well.

“I’d be more than happy to cook him a meal and keep the house amazingly clean while he’s out earning all that money.

“My friends tease that I’m ­getting too old for a young footballer and will have to start looking at their managers, but I like younger men, so I think anyone over 25 is fair game.

“Jack Grealish is so handsome and I like his naughty side. I definitely don’t want anyone over 35 but I might make an exception for the Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta, even though he’s 40.”

10

Carly continues: “The Wags these days all look too similar and don’t have the same glamour as the likes of Victoria Beckham. They don’t seem as interesting either.

‘Very alpha’

“My friends are split between those who long to be Wags too and some friends who think I’m mad and it will never happen.”

Carly still hangs out where she knows footballers will be, from nightclubs to charity events.

And although she says she has been propositioned by reality TV stars, her head won’t be turned.

She says: “I often get asked out by well-known names, but they aren’t what I want so I say no.

“They don’t have the wealth or the same physique as footballers, who know how to look after themselves.

“To be a top footballer you need to be driven and confident, very alpha, and that’s attractive. I won’t rest until I’ve ­netted myself a star player.”