John Terry's lover in £250,000 bidding war

Lingerie model Vanessa Perroncel, 28, is in negotiations with at least six newspapers, according to her publicist Max Clifford.

The most lucrative offer to the former girlfriend of Terry's England team-mate Wayne Bridge came from a Sunday paper within 48 hours of details of the affair surfacing on Friday. Pressure is mounting on the Football Association to strip 29-year-old Terry of the England captaincy.

Sports minister Gerry Sutcliffe said the affair "called into question" Terry's role as captain who has "wider responsibilities for the country". Team-mates of Manchester City's Wayne Bridge, who used to play with Terry at Chelsea, staged a demonstration in support of the player. Three of them lifted their shirts to display "Team Bridge" T-shirts during their game yesterday.

Thousands of angry England fans bombarded internet messages boards and radio phone-ins urging England boss Fabio Capello to sack his captain or risk damaging the team's prospects at this summer's World Cup in South Africa.

Terry, who is set to play for Chelsea tomorrow night away at Hull, is expected to learn his fate on Friday after Capello returns from Italy.

Perroncel could be prepared to address claims that Terry paid for her to have a secret abortion at a private clinic in October. She used to live with Bridge with whom she has a four-year-old son. Terry's wife Toni Poole, 28, has told friends she feels "humiliated" and is said to have demanded a divorce before fleeing their £4 million home in Oxshott, Surrey, to stay in Dubai with the couple's twins.

Bridge, 29, who separated from Perroncel last summer, is understood to be furious at the betrayal but has refused to comment publicly.

The huge level of interest in her story has left her "overwhelmed", Clifford said. He visited her at home last night to help her weigh up her options and expects her to make a decision "in the next day or two".

"She is the hottest story of the day," he said, adding that not all the claims so far from "so-called friends" were true. Perroncel was considering the welfare of her son before talking to anyone, he added. The affair came to light after a gagging order was lifted at the High Court in London on Friday.

The opening £250,000 offers for Perroncel's story already makes it potentially one of the most lucrative kiss-and-tell deals.

Tracey Temple was allegedly paid the same amount by the Mail on Sunday to reveal details of her affair with former deputy prime minister John Prescott in 2006. Kylie's Minogue's ex boyfriend James Gooding was said to have pocketed a similar sum from the News of the World.

Terry is expected to be summoned before Capello in the next few days. There was speculation that Capello may ask Bridge to decide Terry's future by asking whether he is willing to play under his leadership. Terry was voted Dad of the Year last year in a Daddies Sauce survey. But now the £170,000-a-week Chelsea defender, who is worth an estimate £17 million with marketing and media contracts, could face the biggest-divorce settlement in British sport.

Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti confirmed that Terry would remain captain of the club but refused to discuss whether he should remain skipper of the national team. "I am manager of Chelsea and that is my focus, not England," he said. The club has already pledged its support to Terry and his family but added that it was "a personal matter". Ancelotti said last night: "John has his private life. He has to control his private life, just as I have to control my team."