Escort: I didn't chase footballers

A woman previously linked to Premier League strikers Wayne Rooney and Mario Balotelli has claimed that she did not chase the footballers but they went to her.

Balotelli's agent said last week that the player's involvement with Jennifer Thompson occurred during a time when women were "targeting" him to earn money by selling their stories.

Miss Thompson was working as an escort when she and another call girl were linked with Rooney before England's World Cup campaign in 2010. But the 23-year-old claimed she did not pursue footballers.

"I never targeted the footballers, the footballers came to me. I never wanted to do a story about any of the footballers. Friends who know me have wanted to go to the papers and tip them off and that's how it's come about," she told ITV1's This Morning.

She described her involvement with Rooney, at a time when his wife Coleen was pregnant, as "a job".

Miss Thompson said a lot of the stories written about her in the press are exaggerated.

"You read a lot in the papers and you see a lot that is written and not necessarily everything that is written is true. Things get exaggerated and I just want to show the real me and show people that there is a different side to me than what you read in the papers," she said.

When asked why she became an escort, she replied: "I think it's being young and quite naive. You get drawn to seeing the footballers out and like being around the footballers (and) the attention you get. You like it."

Her brother Max said their family struggled to cope with the newspaper headlines.

"At first it was hard as a family, we broke apart a little bit. Then, as time went on, we got back together and spoke about it and things got better, really," he said.