A top Premier League footballer has been having a secret gay relationship for four years but is too scared to come out for fear of it 'ruining his career'.

The unnamed international player met the 21-year-old fashion worker in a night club and after exchanging numbers they started an affair.

He is also in a relationship with a woman and has a child with his female partner.

His lover claims his close friends and teammates know the footballer is bisexual, but he fears being 'tormented' by fans if he came out publicly, reports The Sun.

A top Premier League footballer has been having a secret gay relationship for four years but is too scared to come out for fear of 'ruining his career'. File image used

The openly gay fashion worker told the newspaper: 'The Premier League's a very weird environment for a gay or bi man.

'If two men want a consensual sexual relationship in this country, in most cases, no one would blink an eye.

'But for us, if anyone found out, it could ruin his career. He feels like he'd face constant abuse and bullying from the terraces.'

He claims his lover's fellow players are 'extremely supportive' of his bisexuality, but he still fears 'chants and torments from the stands'.

After they first met on a night out, they exchanged numbers and began meeting regularly at exclusive clubs and sharing lifts home in the player's sports car.

A month later they finally became intimate and met up fortnightly around both men's busy schedules.

The younger man told The Sun how they wouldn't always meet for sex but would sometimes just go for a drive instead.

He is alleged to have paid for a hotel for two nights around the younger man's birthday and paid for train tickets because he 'didn't have much money'.

When the footballer entered into a serious relationship with a woman in 2015, the lovers stopped meeting.

But a year later the footballer got back in touch and their affair re-started.