Play-off final goalkeeper is TikTok sensation who won reality TV series and has Miss Universe star girlfriend
ALEXIS ANDRE Jr is not your typical footballer.
For the Maidstone United goalkeeper is also a social media influencer who won a hit reality television series and whose girlfriend competed in Miss Universe.
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The France-born stopper has around five million followers on TikTok and Instagram, something he started at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic when he was at Bristol Rovers.
Andre, whose Maidstone side face Boreham Wood in the National League South play-off final on Sunday, said: 'I had nothing to do during the first lockdown.
'I make content about anything, about my life and career and everything.
'After the first lockdown, I came back to Bristol Rovers and I was bigger than the club because I had so many followers!
'Now they have their own TikTok account.
'But I don't want people to think I am just a social media content creator and not a footballer.
'It has never been an issue wherever I have played because I am a professional and respectful, too.'
His most recent TikTok videos include dancing with his girlfriend to the latest dance craze, a behind-the-scenes look at Maidstone's play-off semi-final win against Eastbourne, modelling for a number of fashion houses and quizzing his team-mates on their football knowledge.
The son of a man from Guadeloupe, in the Caribbean, he was abandoned aged four by his Moroccan mother at a railway station in his native Mulhouse.
And it formed his 'secret' on TV show Secret Story, where contestants all have a secret they are trying to hide.
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Andre, who bagged £105,000 after winning it last year, said: 'My dad raised me and I have no contact with my mother.
'I didn't miss the love of a mother because my dad, Alex, has given me everything.'
He also met his girlfriend, Belgian TV presenter Zoe Brunet – who finished in the top 20 in the 2018 Miss Universe – during filming.
Now he is hoping for another win, this time with Maidstone as they look to return to the National League after a two-season absence.
The game will take place at the Wood's Meadow Park ground as they finished higher in the league than the Stones.
Andre, who has recorded a divisional best of 23 clean sheets, said: 'We have no problem playing there because we are more confident being the away side and we have been all season.
'But we know this is a one-off game and we know we have to perform.'
Andre spent seven years in the Strasbourg youth set-up and played lower-league football in France and Germany before he joined the Nike Academy, at St George's Park National Football Centre.
From there, he went on trial at Bristol Rovers and signed for the Gas, but only made one senior appearance.
Andre, who is also signed to leading model agency SELECT, was signed by Maidstone manager George Elokobi last summer and rates the ex- Wolves defender as the best coach he has worked with.
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