Love Island winner and ex-EFL player fears being banished from football

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A former Love Island winner who was on the books of MK Dons for more than a decade fears being ostracised from football due to his association with the reality show.

Finn Tapp joined the Dons aged eight and after progressing through the ranks he would go on to make a handful of senior appearances before being released in 2019.

He then had a brief spell at non-league Oxford City before finding fame, love and fortune in the hugely popular ITV show in early 2020. He and partner Paige Turley won the show's first-ever winter edition in South Africa, scooping a £50,000 prize pot to share.

But as he plots a route back into football, the 22-year-old has opened up about his struggles to find a new club and the "stigma" attached to stars of reality TV.

Speaking to The Sun, Tapp said: "With a lot of things going into a show and coming out of it, it's a double-edged sword. Because you get the Instagram following and fanbase, some might think you go into a (football) club and that might mean you get a few more tickets sold.

"But I think there is a stigma attached to reality TV stars. People might think, 'Oh he's the Love Island guy'. They might forget what I did before the show, that I had ambitions of being a player. I don't want to be known as the person in the changing room who is playing just because of the show. I want to be playing because I am putting 100 per cent in training."

Tapp admits to having experienced a