"From Ted Lasso Comparisons to EFL Success: My Journey Beyond the Gold-Digging Stereotype"

CAROLYN RADFORD has taken Mansfield Town on a journey through the English football pyramid – but still gets called a “gold-digger”.

A lawyer by trade – she met wealthy husband John after applying for a job at his company, One Call Insurance.

Radford became CEO of Mansfield in 2011Credit: Alamy At the time she was the youngest club CEO in the EFLCredit: Times Newspapers Ltd

There is nearly 20 years between them but they have built a happy family with three kids who board at the same posh school and went to.

They split their time between three flash houses in the Algarve, Eton and Nottinghamshire, and have an estimated net worth of £184MILLION.

Eyebrows were raised when John Radford bought Mansfield – then a floundering non-league club – for just £1 in 2010 and then installed Carolyn as CEO.

At 29 years old, she was the youngest club chief anywhere in the EFL.

She told The Times : “It was overwhelming.

“Being young, relatively attractive and female, all those things counted against me.

“I was made into this caricature and had the most horrible things you can say about being a woman [said about me], people calling me a bimbo. Nobody knew anything about me, or cared.

“I didn’t realise, especially back then, what the title means or how it worked, that it was generally for people — men — who had been in football or had played or they’d been around football clubs before.

Radford is sometimes compared to the Ted Lasso character Rebecca Welton (right)Credit: AP There is nearly a 20-year age gap between Radford and her husband JohnCredit: Getty Radford has helped propel Mansfield from non-league to League OneCredit: PA Radford says people still look at her “like she’s stupid”Credit: Alamy

“I’m still called a gold-digger. They still just look at me like I’m stupid.”

Radford’s blonde hair and glamorous appearance have seen her compared to Ted Lasso character Rebecca Welton.

But she insists that owning a football club “is not like Ted Lasso”.

Radford and her husband plough £100,000 of their own money into the club every single month to keep things ticking over.

They have gone from training in a park to sprucing up their 10,000-seater stadium and ending a 21-year wait for third-tier football.

And a dream fifth-round tie at home to is in store next month.

But Radford remains frustrated by the behind-the-scenes interactions which show that many senior football figures still have some catching up to do.

She explained: “On match days you go into each other’s boardrooms and a lot of the time they’ll direct conversation to my husband, and it’s not just me being paranoid.

“There are lots of casual comments like, ‘Hope you’re behaving yourself today,’ or, ‘Oh, look at you. You look absolutely gorgeous,’ in a leering kind of way. Just not things you would say to another man.

“But I don’t have to read my CV out to everybody. I work hard, so think what you want.

“I’m not desperate to prove people wrong. I just want to do the best that I can possibly do.”