Kyrgyz heartthrob Lux - the Asian Cup's reluctant sex symbol

Kyrgyzstan ace Vitalij Lux claims he would rather sit in his hotel room alone than be a sex symbol after his Asian Cup hat-trick sent female fans into a spin.

The 29-year-old hunk with the James Dean film-star looks and a name that sounds like a designer shampoo, plundered a midweek treble against the Philippines to fire the White Falcons into the last 16 on their tournament debut.

"This is new for me," hat-trick hero Lux told AFP in an interview on Saturday.

"I can't believe it. I have a lot more Instagram followers suddenly." Lux admits he is footloose and fancy-free, but the Kyrgyz heartthrob insists he's finding it hard to come to terms with his new-found fame.

"I'm still single, I'm searching for the right one," he blushed.

"But I'm a very shy person. I prefer to sit in my room and just work hard at training." Lux's Instagram followers jumped by some 6,000 overnight -- to just over 9,000 -- after his sharp-shooting swept Kyrgyzstan into the next round.

"I'm proud that I have so many followers," said the blond bomber, whose feed shows pictures of him training or lounging bare-chested by the pool.

"It's definitely an unusual situation for me but I feel proud the fans believe in me.

"I get goosebumps just thinking about the hat-trick," added Lux, who plays his club football in Germany with SSV Ulm.

"It was a fantastic feeling -- awesome, amazing. It's given me more self-belief. I feel stronger, bigger. I didn't expect it, it was just a perfect day."
- 'Girls love him' -
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Lux still has some way to go to catch Cristiano Ronaldo's 152 million Instagram followers but a Kyrgyzstan official whispered conspiratorially: "girls love him back home."
"We can just play our football. We have nothing to lose."