Ashley Cole Nude Pictures Sent to Glamour Model Sonia Price

KOMPAS.com -  Ashley Cole became the latest England footballer to become mired in a sex scandal last night after naked pictures of him were allegedly sent to a glamour model. Sonia Wild, 28, is said to have received explicit mobile phone pictures of the Chelsea full-back with raunchy text messages. She replied with images of herself.

The episode brings fresh embarrassment for the national team just days after John Terry was stripped of his captaincy over his affair with teammate Wayne Bridge’s ex-girlfriend Vanessa Perroncel. Last night, the footballer – who is married to X Factor judge Cheryl Cole – admitted taking the naked pictures of himself while staying in the England squad’s hotel.

But Cole, currently injured with a broken ankle that could jeopardise his World Cup hopes, denied he had sent them to the topless model. He said he had been joking around and had forgotten to delete the images before giving the unregistered pay-as-you-go phone to a friend because there was still credit on it.

Cole, 29, told The Sun: ‘I can’t believe I gave a phone away that still had stuff in its memory. I thought I’d deleted it.’ He said someone must have used it to pretend to be him – and attempted to play down the incident, saying he would laugh if his foot didn’t hurt so much.

The allegation comes in the same week television presenter Vernon Kay admitted sending explicit messages to a topless model. A source said that Cole – who earns £82,000 a week – was ‘horrified’ when he discovered the pictures of him had been sent to Miss Wild.

The footballer said he had given the phone to close friend Jay Wynters, but unknown to the football star, Mr Wynters passed it to another friend. Last night, Cole was having to explain the situation to his 26-year-old wife. One of the images reportedly showed a shirtless Cole and was captioned: ‘I look so ugly x.’

Miss Wild, a single mother-of-two from Hull, said she didn’t believe at first that she was really texting the England defender – until she received a picture message of him lying in bed.

‘I recognised him straight away from the pictures I’d seen of him with his wife Cheryl, but couldn’t resist having a bit of fun,’ she said.

The model said the encounter came on June 9 last year, the night before England hosted Andorra in a critical World Cup qualifying match.

The flirty messages went on for more than a month and, she claims, he begged her to meet him in America, but she refused.

‘I had no idea it wasn’t Ashley Cole,’ she added.

In 2008, Cole’s marriage was rocked after hairdresser Aimee Walton claimed they had a one night stand. Sending indecent images over a phone is an offence punishable by up to six months’ jail or a £5,000 fine.