Southampton winger Eljero Elia says the image portrayed of him as a bad-boy is not true

“The negative stories, the people around me know it is not the truth,” says the 27-year-old, discussing the various off-field incidents from throughout his career that have been widely reported since his arrival on loan from Werder Bremen.

“The people outside, the people who don’t know, they read and think ‘Hey, this guy is crazy’.

“Then they see the pictures and tattoos and everything.

“They see my car, they think ‘This guy is only doing things to impress people’.”

However, the Dutch winger insists nothing could be further from the truth.

“I’m a quiet guy, I’m with my family the whole time and I don’t do nothing – I don’t go out,” he says.

“What else can you do? It can be hard to come up. Only what you can [do] is let your feet speak.”

As news of Elia’s arrival at St Mary’s broke, lists of supposedly controversial incidents that he had been involved in throughout his career were quickly published, with some of the tabloids labelling him as ‘the next Mario Balotelli’.

Yet Elia says he does not recognise the person he is often portrayed as.

“You cannot fight against the media,” he insists, with a tone of exasperation and frustration.

“The media can make you and they can break you.

“I can tell you from my heart, I swear on my children, the things they were saying in the newspaper was not the truth. It’s not the truth. You can see it by yourself.”

The incident that has gained most notoriety happened in 2013, when Elia was suspended by Werder Bremen, with the story going that he was caught speeding in the early hours of the morning.

However, although he was in the car, Elia insists he was only a passenger, with his friend being at the wheel, and that he was actually asleep at the time it was pulled over.

“I don’t drive the car, I do nothing,” he says.

“The next day I come with my own car to the club. Everybody sees it, they film it.

“The first thing that the police do if you drive too fast on the highway – if you have a race and you’re driving 200 or 190 [km/h] – they take your driving licence away.

“But the next day I come with my own car to the club.”

On another occasion, Elia drew criticism for hitting out at a fan on social media.

What he says was not reported, however, is that the supporter had been subjecting him to a string of racially abusive messages.

“Normally I don’t react, but I come from [a bad day’s] training and my head was full and I reacted,” he explains.

So, if the image regularly portrayed of him is false, who is the real Elia?

Well, the softly-spoken Dutch international, who was born in the town of Voorburg, describes himself as an approachable family man – he has three children with his girlfriend, who he is due to marry in the summer – while he also runs his own charitable organisation.

“If you ask me for a photo, every time I make a photo,” he says. “Every time I am open.

“I open my own charity for young people, who cannot buy football shoes and they don’t get the money to play football – I open my own charity for my old neighbourhood, I open my own field, already there, that they can play football there.

“But things like that you don’t hear. I don’t care about that. I do it not for me, I do it for the kids. But things like that you don’t hear.”

While Elia is keen to change how he is perceived off the pitch, he is also hoping to bolster his reputation on it with Saints.

He has not played for the national team since 2012, when he was last selected by then head coach Louis van Gaal, who he will meet again on Sunday at Old Trafford, as Saints visit Manchester United – a match that will likely see Elia make his debut for his new club.

Elia, who featured in the 2010 World Cup, coming on as a substitute in the Netherlands’ defeat against Spain in the final, believes he is in the right place to break into his national side again.

“Of course, I have to come back,” he says, determinedly.

“I have to be in the right place and I have to have the right people around me, then everything is possible.”