Female Sports Pundit Almost Kidnapped In Russia, Tells Driver She's Putin's Friend

Alex Scott revealed that she was almost kidnapped by an Uber driver in Russia and only managed to escape after telling him that she was a friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In the 38-year-old sports pundit's memoir "How (Not) To Be Strong," she recalled that she was riding an Uber back to her hotel after a night out with friends when the male driver "turned" on her during the 15-minute drive, according to the Daily Mail.

At the time, Scott was in Russia to cover the 2018 Moscow World Cup for the BBC. She explained that the BBC usually asks staff to use official, pre-booked cars for work trips, but she opted to book an Uber that night as it was a personal affair.

During the ride, the former professional soccer player said the driver suddenly turned to her and allegedly told her in English, "Tell them they will never see you again," according to an excerpt from the book cited by the Mirror.

Scott said she responded that she did not understand, so the driver, who was described as "a stacked bald man, stocky and wearing a grin on his face," grabbed his phone and used Google Translate to allegedly write, "Tonight I am not taking you home. You come with me."

Scott became terrified to the point that her "body went numb" as the unidentified Uber driver continued to tell her "horrible, terrible things: how he takes girls like me, how they never make it home" through Google Translate and his "broken" English.

The sports pundit said she managed to send a quick message to her agent telling him to send a search party if she still hadn't returned to the hotel in 15 minutes.

But the driver then allegedly told her via his phone, "Girls like you, I kill."

At that moment, Scott said she thought she would never see her mother again.

Then suddenly, the former Lioness, who made 140 appearances for the England women's national soccer team, remembered that she had met with the Russian president that morning and told the driver that she was a friend of Putin.

"He started laughing. 'No one sees Putin.' I was scrambling now, pulling up photos from the morning's visit to the Kremlin that had made newspaper headlines," Scott wrote in the book, adding that she saw how the man's laughter died down as he began to realize the seriousness of the situation.

"If I don't see Putin tomorrow, he will find you," she added.

Scott said the driver ultimately took her back to her hotel, but before she could get out of the car, he allegedly tried to "touch her legs and kiss her."

"I knew then what a near-miss I'd had but, rather than confront it, I just... brushed aside the incident [as if] it had never happened," Scott wrote. "I didn't want people to worry about me or think I couldn't handle myself – just like when I was young."

Earlier that day, Scott attended a meeting at the Kremlin alongside FIFA president Gianni Infantino and Putin, where they discussed the "power of world football."

The sports pundit posted about the meeting on Twitter, including pictures of the event.

"From that 8-year-old on my estate playing cage football, fast forward to sitting alongside the president of FIFA discussing the power of world football in the Kremlin today," she wrote.