5. North Korea calling
The North Koreans’ interest in Jonny May appears to stem back to an interview England team-mate Ben Te’o gave to The Telegraph in February 2017.
Te’o said the pair had watched a lot of documentaries on the hermit state and discussed how to bring peace to the region over many a cup of coffee
But in November of that year, May received a letter from the North Korean government asking him to have a go at putting his ideas into practice.
The Leicester winger told the Daily Mail: “There was this letter waiting for me with a wax stamp on it, the full works, saying ‘private, confidential.”
“It said, ‘Hi Jonny. We’ve seen that you and Ben Te’o are interested in our country and we’d love to arrange a trip up to the embassy for you, to meet all our president’s dignitaries, then we can organise a VIP tour to North Korea’.
“I sent the picture to Ben saying, ‘What the hell is going on? Is this a wind-up?’. He said, ‘No, I’ve had one too, they’re watching us!’.
“That’s what’s scary, they do watch out like that, they have a Google alert. When anyone is talking about North Korea, it will pop up.
“I haven’t been to the embassy. I’m actually worried about it. I didn’t write back.”