Patrick Bamford has opened up on the stigma he has faced in football after attending private school.
The forward's upbringing was a topic of conversation when he first started making a name for himself in football due to the fact he went to private school and achieved strong grades at GCSE and A-Levels, even being offered a football scholarship to study at Harvard University.
Bamford feels the fact he had a privileged education has led to misconceptions over his lifestyle, revealing to the Daily Mail that one Leeds United coach even thought his father was a billionaire.
"There was always that stigma because I went to private school," he said.
"People assume I have never had to work for anything, which is total nonsense.
"They think everything comes easy to you and that you take everything for granted. There was this misconception that I’m a really posh guy. The truth is I’m not.
"My parents went without sometimes to provide for me and my sisters and that’s why it does anger me when people think it’s been handed to me and my family gets it easy when it’s not like that."
He added: "The players and staff had a get-together after we’d won promotion at Leeds.
"While he was talking to me, he said that he was fascinated by how hard I worked and that he was so impressed, especially as my dad was a billionaire.
"I didn’t have the heart to tell him my dad was an architect from Newark. He’s just a regular bloke. I don’t know if you’ve ever been to Newark but it’s not the most affluent place in the country."
Bamford endured a tough loan at Burnley in 2016/17, lasting just half a season and making only six Premier League appearances before being recalled by parent club Chelsea.
At the time, it was chalked up to a clash of personalities between himself and Clarets boss Sean Dyche, with the 27-year-old now revealing that the fact his parents came with him to Turf Moor to sign for the club proved problematic with the manager.
"It wasn’t an issue at Burnley until I started asking why I wasn’t playing," Bamford said.
"And then the manager started citing other reasons: ‘born with a silver spoon in your mouth’ and was ‘listening to too many people influencing you outside of football’.
"When I asked for an example, the answer was ‘who did you arrive with when you signed on your first day?’ I said ‘my mum and dad’ and he said ‘exactly’. Then I started getting defensive. I didn’t think that was right."
