SHE is a self professed serial dater who enjoys being wined and dined five times a week.
But now Maria Darup says she has a bone to pick with the World Cup tournament as it has 'stolen' all her eligible suitors.
The hairstylist, 25, has been single for the past year and admits that she is "hooked" on dating apps like Tinder, which she checks every day “without fail”.
She explains that she has “a lot of matches” and blokes are “always sliding into her DMs”.
This resulted in her going on around five dates a week in the four months leading up to the World Cup which kicked off in Qatar on November 20.
Since then, she said this flood of requests had dried into a “tiny, trickling stream”.
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“The World Cup has ruined my love life and stolen all the fit guys,” she explained.
"It might be hot in Qatar but there's a drought of hot men on dating apps at the moment.
“I’ve checked Tinder pretty much every day for the past 10 days and it's like driving in second-gear with the handbrake up.
“I’m getting slower replies and less of them. The only blokes I’m matching with look like they live with their mothers or have an uncle called dad.
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“That’s not my type and I can’t wait for it to end if I’m honest. Don’t get me wrong, I want England to do well but I also have my own needs.”
Man for Christmas
Maria, from Swindon, Wilts, has used dating apps on-and-off for years and was hoping that her recent run of form would see her bag a man for Christmas.
But since the World Cup began, the pace has “dropped significantly” and she can’t get anyone to commit to a date – let alone a relationship.
She said: “Blokes are trying to set up dates and then rearranging.
“They’re claiming they’ve got work meetings, family issues or things like Covid.
“Basically every excuse you could think of apart from football.
"A couple of guys have even had the cheek to ask me to go and watch football with them for a date.
“That is not my kind of thing, I like to be wined and dined, not ignored and told to ‘get the beers before the half-time rush’.”
'More cushion for the pushing'
Maria, a mother-of-two, said she has the age of matches on her apps set between 25 and 38.
She has had “more luck” with guys aged above 35 but anyone in the lower age bracket has “totally disappeared”.
This is despite her liking big built guys with dad bods.
“I’ve never gone for muscly guys with six packs,” she explained.
“I like bigger guys but chubby ones – I don’t know why but it’s the look I go for.
“If a guy is really muscly, for me it just shows that they are self-obsessed.
"The only thing they should be obsessed with is me.
“There’s nothing wrong with a bit of extra – it's more cushion for the pushing as they say.”
She spoke as adult toy company GetFruityCo.Com revealed that there has been a 32 per cent rise in sales in the days leading up to the tournament.
A spokesman said: "A lot of blokes will be focused on football rather than their wife or partner at the moment.
“There really isn’t going to be much respite when some start as early as 10am and others don’t finish until 9pm.
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"So, it may be the case that women will be spending more time on their own than they usually do, unless they are football fans too.
“The increase in sales has been quite significant.
"Generally, this time of year sales are steady but there has been a sharp spike recently."
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