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220 pages

English

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Few footballers in history have commanded as much media attention as David Beckham. From the moment he announced himself to the world with a breathtaking goal from the halfway line against Wimbledon in 1996, he became public property. Over the next two years, as he embarked on a relationship with a Spice Girl and was sent off in a crucial World Cup game for England, he was loved and loathed in equal measure. The restoration of brand Beckham saw him installed as England captain and almost universally loved by the time he blazed a trail across the globe with stops in Madrid, Los Angeles, Milan and Paris. But what about the player behind the celebrity? What about the boy born to play for Manchester United - the midfielder who exemplified the idea that dedication and hard work can pay off? Isn't it time he was celebrated too? Drawing on exclusive interviews with former Beckham team-mates, acclaimed footballer writer Wayne Barton explores Beckham's contribution as one of the greatest players of his generation.

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Publié par	Pitch Publishing Ltd
Date de parution	14 septembre 2020
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781785317507
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0500€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

First published by Pitch Publishing, 2020
Pitch Publishing
A2 Yeoman Gate
Yeoman Way
Durrington
BN13 3QZ
www.pitchpublishing.co.uk
Wayne Barton, 2020
Every effort has been made to trace the copyright.
Any oversight will be rectified in future editions at the earliest opportunity by the publisher.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the Publisher.
A CIP catalogue record is available for this book from the British Library
Print ISBN 9781785316760
eBook ISBN 9781785317507
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Contents
Too Good to be True
Fated
Education
Winning Nothing, then Everything, with Kids
A Star is Born
Seven
Evita
Effigy
Naughty Boy
Practice Makes Perfect
Leaving Home Again
Galactico
Spotlight
Reputation
Out of the Wilderness
Top to Bottom
Impression
Vogue
The Beckham Redemption
The Sequel
One Last Challenge
Reinventing the Wheel
Epilogue
Acknowledgements
Too Good to be True
MOST STORIES about a player signing for a club as a youngster follow a similar pattern: a young lad is spotted by a scout whilst playing for a local team; there is possibly some competition for his signature and a decision to make. Maybe the story has a little more flavour if some skulduggery is involved - incentives that would be frowned upon today, and indeed would have been back then if they had been made official or public. Sometimes it is the identity of the scout, a legendary talent spotter - and goodness knows, Manchester United had a few - who finds and identifies a rare gem destined for greatness. David Beckham was not so much discovered as he was served up by himself on a silver platter, donned in the red, white and black of Manchester United.
This is not to say that his path to professional football was remarkably different to that of any other aspiring young boy. The things that in hindsight are seen as fated are probably not so exceptional when considering what was normal at the time. David Robert Joseph Beckham was born in Leytonstone, north-east London, to Sandra and Ted on 2 May 1975 - his middle name after one Bobby Charlton, the then-recently retired Manchester United legend. This was because his father was a huge United fan.
According to Ted, young David was almost too good to be true: never in trouble at school, the best at every ball sport. To the thrill of his father, the son excelled at football, and loved it from the second he was introduced to it. He also shared his love for Manchester United, and the pair would go to see their team whenever they were in the capital. When he was six, David went on a summer course organised by Spurs legend Cliff Jones (Jones, incidentally, had been one player the former Manchester United assistant manager Jimmy Murphy had tried to sign when he was interim manager after the Munich air disaster). He showed tremendous promise, earning the top badge award for completing various drills better than other young players who were ten years older.
David would accompany his father when he was playing for semi-professional side Kingfisher. They trained at Wadham Lodge, and the waif-like child found that the adults were happy to allow him to play in five-a-sides - so long as he could take the bumps that came with it.
The following year, Beckham was spotted playing on the park across the road from his house - Chase Lane Park - by Stuart Underwood, the coach of local youth team Ridgeway Rovers. Ted recalled his son running home excitedly to tell him that a man wanted him to try out for a youth team. An alternative recollection of this story, presented here for completeness, was that David attended a trial after an advertisement had been placed in the local newspaper, the Walthamstow Guardian . It is long enough ago for the specifics of the arrangement to be lost from memory, although the coach was clearly left with a vivid impression.
He was a football nutcase, Underwood remembered in 2003. His life was football. He wanted to be a pro aged seven he looked a professional from day one he could hit the ball from every corner of the pitch. His timing was incredible.
Underwood was regarded as a sergeant major type: a hard but fair leader who was not shy in telling children as young as Beckham was that they needed to improve, or that they d had a bad game. Ted was sometimes hesitant - like most reasonable parents, he was not always comfortable with his son, who could be sensitive to criticism, being scolded in front of other kids - but David was in fact very responsive to the leadership. Perhaps that s because, despite the generation gap, there was a kindred spirit between him and Underwood. David was a very tidy child, according to his parents, and liked everything to be neat. Underwood was also a stickler for the perfect preparation, be it ensuring the pitches were good, or even demanding that the young players wear a shirt and tie when turning up for an important game like a cup final. The coach also instilled discipline: if a youngster was late for training during the week, they wouldn t be able to play at the weekend. The high calibre of organisation provided the perfect platform for young players to shine.
Ridgeway s talented side were winning games handsomely; it was a regular occurrence to hit double figures. Ted had joined the coaching staff there, working alongside Underwood and assistant coach Steve Kirby.
In the summer of 1985, after Manchester United had won the FA Cup, David enrolled in the Bobby Charlton Soccer and Sports Academy, attending for the residential summer classes after seeing a feature for it on the television programme Blue Peter . The boy who had grown up in a red-and-white kit did not initially take to life in Manchester University s halls of residence.
Mum and Dad came up and stayed with relatives near Liverpool, and I was on the phone to them every evening, Beckham admitted. I had toothache. I was homesick. And the week just passed me by a little.
Many children might have given up after such a setback. David might not get his dream of playing for United, but getting a chance to become a professional footballer was at least something within the realms of possibility.
Local professional clubs like West Ham were sniffing around the Ridgeway Rovers players, though the coaches such as Underwood were advising that it was best for their collective development to stay where they were to improve for the time being. They did just that, but there was no doubting even at that stage that there was one name which stood out. The present day Ridgeway Rovers website boasts that over two years, Beckham scored around 100 goals.
Ted and Sandra had been sufficiently tempted by the prospect of West Ham to take David to watch a game there; however, they too were sensible enough to not bite the first offer, taking Stuart s advice that offers would continue to be forthcoming. The Hammers had offered ten-year-old David a trial.
No concrete decision was taken on his future, so Ridgeway were blessed to retain his talents, but the talented young midfielder did enjoy some training sessions at top London clubs like Arsenal, and his maternal grandfather s club, Tottenham Hotspur. With David approaching his 11th birthday, it was decided that the time was right to commit to a professional club, and so the names of the fierce north London rivals were put into a hat. Thankfully for the sake of family relations, Spurs were picked out, and he joined their school of excellence.
In the summer after he turned 11, David went back to the Bobby Charlton school in Manchester, desperate to make a better impression. He did, excelling on all the skills courses through his week, and advancing to the Grand Final which was to be held in Manchester in December 1986.
Ironically enough, on the weekend of this final, United were entertaining Tottenham. In the morning, David had to go to The Cliff, United s famous training facility in Lower Broughton, Salford. There was a competition in the indoor sports hall and David won through, impressing with his short passing, ball-juggling and target shooting.
In addition to his natural ability, David displayed a fantastic work ethic and a great deal of determination, which meant he was continually practising his individual skills, recalled Bryn Cooper, the director of the courses. It was clearly evident to the coaches that David was completely focused on becoming a professional footballer.
The second part of the final was to be staged before the game at Old Trafford, which was being aired live on the BBC.
Almost 36,000 supporters were in attendance to witness a moment that would forever be remembered by the Beckham family, although it passed without any significance to most who were there.
He looked so tiny and the stadium seemed so enormous around him, Ted recalls of seeing his son walk on to the Old Trafford pitch for the very first time. Not for the last time, there was a sense of occasion and dramatic tension, although on this introductory stage, it came with the traditional pantomime feel that football banter often carries. Young David was introduced as hailing from Leytonstone - cue cheers from the Tottenham fans - before being revealed as a massive United fan - prompting a retaliatory roar from the home crowd.
What a galvanising lift for the young boy, who had already shown such confidence in the morning s event. The drills in this portion of the event were dribbling and