Football great reveals extraordinary ‘honey pot’ plot

A football great has revealed the trap his team stumbled into in Russia when they arrived at a hotel to discover supermodels waiting for them.

Former Arsenal defender Pascal Cygan has revealed the Gunners once dodged a honeytrap of supermodels set up by Lokomotiv Moscow before a crunch Champions League match.

The Frenchman failed to win over the Emirates faithful in the error-strewn four years he spent in north London, but the centre-back has proven he could never have been accused of not being committed, The Sun reports.

Cygan, who arrived at Arsenal as a married man with two young daughters, has claimed Lokomotiv Moscow did all they could to lead him and the rest of Arsene Wenger’s squad astray.

The 45-year-old revealed the Russian side organised a bevy of supermodels to honeytrap the Gunners, but he insisted none of his teammates fell into temptation.

Now retired, Lens-born Cygan made the revelation in his local newspaper La Voix du Nord.

He said: “When we entered our hotel in Moscow there were ten Russian top models waiting for us.

“They were seated in front of the bar.

Arsenal great Pascal Cygan claims to have been caught up in a Russian "honey pot" plot.

“We were later told that they had been there to tire us out during the night before the match.

“We didn’t lose, and as far as I remember none of our players was stupid enough to fall into the trap.

“That was just as well, given the situation at that time.

“Stories about players’ private lives used to appear regularly in the papers.”

Arsenal were without Patrick Vieira, Sol Campbell, Dennis Bergkamp and Freddy Ljungberg but managed to secure a 0-0 draw.

Cygan, who was named on the bench for the stalemate, was playing second fiddle to the likes of Martin Keown and Ashley Cole, with Thierry Henry and Robert Pires also in the starting eleven.

Arsenal's Pascal Cygan didn’t mess around when it came to football.

Arsenal went on to emerge from Group B, beating Lokomotiv 2-0 in London, before losing 3-2 on aggregate to Chelsea in the quarter-final.

Cygan was part of the last Arsenal squad to win the Premier League title in 2004.

A £2million buy from Lille in 2002, he made 98 Gunners appearances before leaving for Spaniards Villarreal in 2006.

— This story originally appeared in thesun.co.uk and has been republished with permission