The Icelandic girls at the centre of the Mason Greenwood and Phil Foden saga have broken their silence.
Model Nadia Sif Lindal Gunnarsdottir and her cousin Lara Clausen ended up in the hotel room Greenwood and Foden were staying in, leading to the pair being sent home days after they made their England debuts against Iceland for breaching strict coronavirus guidelines.
Footage of the England youngsters in their room surfaced online, as did leaked footage of a Snapchat call showing two girls speaking to the duo and talking about meeting them.
In a statement posted on Instagram before she deleted her account 'Miss Iceland' Nadia, 20, claims she didn't know the two had to quarantine, as well as stating she did not take or leak the photos and videos that have surfaced.
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As per The Mirror, her statement read: "I wanted to come clean a bit about this whole thing. I did not leak anything to the media. I did not take those photos and those videos.
"I was not talking to him on the phone, that was another girl. I did not know that they were quarantined.
"They did not deserve this one bit, they are amazing lads and really good footballers. I did not mean for any of this to happen. I'll say it again, I did not leak ANYTHING to the media and NEVER would.
"Also I was wearing jeans that night, not leggings. Yeah I posted that for one hour, a story with my closest friends, but someone took a screenshot.
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"Yes I did mess up too. Never said I didn't. But I will defend myself from stories that aren't true."
In a separate interview that the two cousins did with the Daily Mail, Nadia said she had been speaking to Manchester United star Greenwood "for a couple of days" before he and the rest of the England squad arrived in Reykjavik, Iceland's capital.
Describing them as "perfect gentlemen", she maintains she was not aware Greenwood played for United and neither had spoke to Foden beforehand.
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Nadia explained: "We didn't even know who Phil was. I asked Phil who he was. I'm not that much into football. I don't watch football at all. We didn't even know that Mason played for Man United.
"We haven't spoken to them since. We don't want to interrupt them because they are of course going through a lot right now. They haven't contacted us.
"They were nice guys. Really, really nice."
19-year old Lara added: "They were just young. We were all young and stupid and we all make mistakes. They treated us really well. They were such gentlemen. Really nice guys."
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Foden has since released a statement on his official Twitter account apologising for his conduct, while both players were condemned by their clubs.
Reacting to the news yesterday, England boss Gareth Southgate confirmed Greenwood and Foden would not be making the trip to Denmark.
He said: "Unfortunately this morning it was brought to my attention that two boys have broken the COVID guidelines in terms of our secure bubble and so we had to decide very quickly that they couldn't have any interaction with the team."
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They've been naive, I recognise their age but the whole world is dealing with this pandemic & there's responsibility on every age group in playing their part and not spreading the virus. They have apologised."
Topics: Manchester City, Phil Foden, Manchester United, Mason Greenwood, England, Iceland
