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You don't have to be a rocket scientist to understand our obsession with the Beckhams. Posh and
Becks are the stuff of tabloid dreams: a simple, irresistible, fairy-tale formula. Who hasn't dreamed
of being a footballer or a pop star? Thanks to their talent, David and Victoriafs dreams turned
out better than they could have possibly hoped, lighting a fuse that propelled them high into the celebrity stratosphere.
And it's here that they burn brightly, brilliantly, each bathed in the light of the other.
Since the first planetary
assault by the Spice Girls, much has been written about Victoria. She is feisty, funny and outspoken and seems perfectly comfortable
with the press attention surrounding her. By contrast, David appears enigmatic. He peers broodingly out at us from magazine
covers and newspapers, but is rarely even heard – especially in the early months of this year, since he's been preparing
for the World Cup rather than giving interviews to the press. These days you simply can't get to David Beckham. When the couple
shared the stage on Parkinson, it was Victoria who did most of the talking. On the surface, David appears to be a man of few
words; it's only on the pitch that he speaks volumes. However, away from the camera and interviews, the reality is surprisingly
different.
As one of David and Victoria's good friends, I recently got a revealing glimpse into David's world, while
he was busy prompting the new range of Police sunglasses, for which he is the face and spokesman. Until then, I had only ever
seen David and Victoria privately ant dinners in London or in the south of France. In fact, the last time Elton [John] and
I had dinner with them – at The Ivy, in London – a veritable mob scene ensued as word of their presence spread
through the West End. The police had to be called and we were rushed from the building in a blinding blaze of flashbulbs.
The
scene for the sunglasses launch at Riverside Studios, west London, was no different. Over the years I've seen my fair share
of pre-show mayhem and this party was par for the course. Out front, the stage was jammed with journalists, photographers,
and sunglasses retailers lapping up the hospitality. The ubiquitous gossip columnist Nicky Haslam was there, looking even
more ridiculous than usual with his hair stuffed full of feathers. Piercing laser lights and the throb of techno music filled
the room as I pushed my way through the throng to see Beckham.
Once backstage, the absence was in marked contrast.
I arrived at his dressing room to see him sitting quietly with his agent of seven years, Tony Stephens. David quickly jumped
up, gave me a bear hug and the biggest smiles, before resuming the discussion about upcoming commitments. He looked surprisingly
relaxed, wearing a plain white T-shirt, baggy hip-hop-style trousers and some well scuffed Timberlands. The only accoutrements
that hinted at his superstar status were chunky Panerai watch and a discreet pair of diamond stud earrings. His famous number
one crop was starting to grow out, his new spiky do unevenly gelled in a messy but controlled way. The room was sparse, without
the usual tarting up hospitality rooms tend to have. Jennifer Lopez would certainly not have approved: no swathes of white
muslin. No bouquets of flower. No scented candles. And no special chef on hand, ready to whip up anything Britain's most famous
footballer might desire. Instead, he tucked into a pizza, while two young girls served wine, beer and Diet Coke from a makeshift
bar in the corner.
Before long, the room started to fill up with supporters and well-wishers. And this is when the
real David Beckham starts to show his colours. Little-by-little, almost every member of his and Victoria's family starts to
trickle in. His grandparents live in east London and have driven all the way across town to wish him well. David hugs them
and bursts out laughing when his grandfather ruffles his scalp disapprovingly and tells him to let it grow. By the time the
place is full, the room feels more like a church social than a slick celebrity launch. For the Beckhams, this is what it's
really all about. They don't surround themselves with the usually coterie of famous friends and hangers-on, they draw their
strength from an inexhaustible fund of genuine family support. When Brooklyn finally arrives with his mother and grandparents,
he immediately starts tearing around the room in peals of laughter with his cousin, Liberty. It is all refreshingly normal
and not at all what one would come to expect from the country's most famous couple.
The launch goes off without a hitch.
By the time it's over, Beckham has greeted practically everyone and autographed an endless array of jerseys, books and photos.
The entire family leaves with goodie bags and sunglasses. Even David's grandmother models a pair and reckons they'll come
in quite handy.
Three hours have passed and the Beckhams have to head back up to Victoria's parent's house for the
night. David has a car collecting him early, to whisk him up to Manchester for training, while Victoria is due on GMTV that
morning to promote her new single. It's easier for all of them to spend the night at Victoria's parents, so Brooklyn can be
with his grandparents the next day. Everyone else piles into the family people carrier (Brooklyn wants to watch his Dumbo
DVD on the ride home), while David and I hump into another car so we can talk: about fame, fashion, family and football.
David Funish: That was quite a performance. You must be knackered.
David Beckham: It was all
right. I was up and down the stairs all the night. I had to go hack down because this lady turned around to me and said there
were more customers who wanted stuff signed. So I went down there was a bunch of people wanting autographs on shirts, balls,
and everything.
Don't you get nervous? I remember seeing you before you went on Parkinson
and you seemed quite nervous.
I quite enjoyed it actually. They said that time it was
so much better than last year.
How does it feel to be centre of attention all the time?
It's weird. I was standing behind the screen while they were waiting for me to come out. I could hear some of the
audience moaning because I had been late and all, delaying it a bit because all the family wasn't there. As soon as I came
out, as soon as I started speaking – it's weird: they just stop and and listen. It amazes me. I don't see it as much
as other people who turn around to me and say, Wow, the way people react when you're around. Tonight was really the first
time I sort of realized it.
You could have heard a pin drop when you walked on stage. Why do you think
youre so valuable to Police sunglasses?
I really don't know. I got my eyes tested the
other day and bloke that was doing the test turned around and said What you've done for Police sunglasses! Their sales have
just rocketed.
Tonight the head of the company said you had doubled sales of Police sunglasses.
It must make a lot of money!
You have this hugely iconic status here and around the world.
How does that make you feel?
I like it. It's nice. Do you know, the most rewarding thing
for me, I think, is where I'll be driving down the street and you'll see a bunch of kids and they'll all have Beckham, 7 on
their backs. That's the nicest thing. When I was young I used to walk around with Number 7, Robson on my back. So it's nice
to see that.
You must feel burdened by it all?
There is an expectation.
But I suppose I've sort of put myself there and let myself get to that sort of level where I'm expected to play a certain
way, look a certain way, dress a certain way. It's something I've got used to now.
I had a chat with your
dad earlier. He said you have always been hugely interested in fashion.
Crazy about fashion.
Always, always. It was big bad, actually, in the early years. My dad's never been into fashion. Never, ever. He's still a
bad dresser now.
How do you feel about being voted the Best Dressed Man in Britain by GQ?
Amazing.
I'm really glad that there's a side to my life rather than just football. It makes things a bit more interesting than just
reading about football side. Although some people might try and turn around and say, You know, it just goes with the show
biz lifestyle. Well, I haven't got a show biz lifestyle.
You certainly didn't appear to have one backstage
tonight. Do people always think that about you?
I think they get a lot of things wrong.
A lot of people think , he's this flash Cockney so-and-so. Well, I'm not. I've never liked that image. I just like looking
good. It's not a case of - I really like myself.
Do you remember people inspired your style of dressing
when you were younger? One of my recollections of someone looking great was seeing Richard Gere in American Gigolo and seeing
him laying out all the Armani ties and shirts on the bed, thinking it was so cool.
I used
to see pictures of Frank Sinatra and the clothes he used to wear. You would always see him in these high-waisted, baggy trousers
with a big turned-up, and the spats and the waistcoat with the shirt and jacket and the handkerchief coming out of the pocket.
I like people how make an effort. The look I'm wearing now is inspired by Steve McQueen and those sort of people.
Well,
I think you'll go crazy for some of the men's fashions next winter. These seems to be a real throwback to the elegant glamour
of Old Hollywood dressing.
Well, I guess I'd better sign my new contract so I can afford
it!
You must get discounts and have designers sending you rails and rails of free stuff.
Victoria gets more. I don't get much stuff sent to me. I guess shoe goes to more things where she dresses up. I
get sent bits and bobs, but not huge amounts. It's weird you know, me and Victoria wore some dungarees the other day in a
photo shoot. And then we went into the shop and they said it had been non-stop with people ringing up all day and asking where
to get these dungarees. It surprises me, the influence I have on people.
How would describe your personal
style?
Oh, I don't know. Something from another planet. It all depends whether I have
the sarong on or not.
Now I liked the sarong!
I liked it. But what a fuss that all caused.
I don't known how to describe myself, really. I can either look like one of the smartish people, one of the smartest dressers,
or I can really look like the scruffiest dresser.
Who inspires you in fashion terms now?
I think there are people you see in magazines you get ideas from, but I don't follow anyone or anything in particular.
At the moment I'm wearing a lot of second-hand stuff. The jacket I wore for the Police launch tonight, that was second-hand.
It was about 40years old.
That's so funny. When you put it on tonight your nan said, That looks like it
came from a second-hand shop!
I know. So I'm going through that stage at the moment. Victoria
has had a lot to do with it. I suppose if I hadn't met Victoria, and married some other girl then I probably wouldn't dress
the way I dress.
Do you ever disagree?
Not too
much.
Does she ever say, You're not wearing that, are you?
Yeah, she
really hated the hat that I wore when I went for dinner with you and Elton. She hated the hat. But I liked it, so
So
you went with it anyway.
Absolutely.
Just how bad did you feel when
kidnap threats were made on Brooklyn? I remember a distraught Victoria phoning us up when Scotland Yard had called and she
and Brooklyn had to go into hiding. And you were away playing for England.
I was staying
at Burnham Beeches which was lucky, really, because I was in London still. I just went totally white. I felt helpless. When
I got back to the house Victoria was sitting in Brooklyn's room just looking at him. She wouldn't let him out of her sight.
I just didn't know what to do. It's up to the man in the relationship to be the strong one and I was trying to be strong,
but I just didn't know what to do. I wanted to make sure they were safe above anything else.
Doesn't that
make you want to live your life differently?
It is very hard to trust people. We do have
security, but I don't think I could live the life of going to Tesco and always having someone there. But I think if it got
really bad then we'd have to make some big changes.
It always causes such a frenzy when two people who
are stars in their own right come together. If your fame equals 10points and Victoria's equals 10points, the combined effect
shoots up to 100 points. The media have even dubbed your Britain's New Royal Family.
It's
weird. For me and Victoria, year we're famous, but we try to see ourselves as normal. To our friends and to our mums and dads,
they are the people that we care about. And hopefully, they see us as normal. Whatever goes on outside that, that's life.
The important thing is that we care comfortable in the relationship that we're in.
Why is Victoria so
perfect for you?
She's perfect for me because when I looked at Victoria for the first
time, I felt real love. People will probably go Ugh and find it sickening when they hear that. As soon as I saw Victoria,
that was it. As soon as I saw that video of her wearing the catsuit in the desert [for Say You'll Be There], I was just Phwoarh.
I always thought that she lived in London and I was always up in Manchester then. I never ever though I'd be able to meet
her. Do you know, I only told her this the other day: I actually went to a nightclub in London looking for her. Obviously
I never met her then. But it must have been fate, because she came to one of my games and we met.
And
that wasn't planned at all?
No. Not at all. We just clicked. It was weird because I always
used to go for blondes. Not peroxide blondes, just natural blonde girls! And quiet girls, not really loud. And Victoria is
the total opposite – dark and loud. When I saw Victoria for the first time at that Chelsea game, I just couldn't take
my eyes off her.
I watched the TV documentary about your last year. In one scene you wemt to visit your
best friend Gary Neville. It was pointed out that you don't have many friends, and you called yourself Billy no-Mates. Do
you really find it hard to make friends?
It's impossible, impossible. It sounds like a
cliché when people always turn around and say, You've changed.So many people have said that to me over the years. But then
someone turned around to me the other day and said, It's actually you that has changed. They change. The people change towards
you.So that's the hard thing to come to terms with. People do change – they won't notice it, but they treat you differently
You know, even when I was at school I never had a best friend. Yeah, I had friends, but no one who I regarded as a best friend.
All the other lads just wanted to go out drinking cider and doing whatever. I would be at home watching Match Of The Day on
a Saturday night. The rest of my mates from school were at parties. I've always been focused on my football. I knew what I
wanted and I knew what I had to do to achieve it.
What about the World Cup. How are
you feeling, Captain Beckham?
I've got a good feeling about it. Even though we are in
a really tough group – I think one of the toughest groups. I've got a good feeling about it because of the way the games
have gone and the way we've come back from people writing us off. I think the World Cup is going to be amazing. Especially
for me to be captain and leading a team to the finals. It just beyond the wildest dreams that I have ever had.
You
never thought you would get here?
I never thought I would be captain.
What's
your strategy for winning the World Cup?
Just work hard. I'm not one of these captains
who goes in and shouts at people and has a go at them. Obviously if the players need to be told, then I'll do it, but I'm
not one of these captains that hollers. I'll just go out there on the field and run my heart out for 90minutes and then, hopefully,
the players will act differently off that. I think the motivation comes from me by the way I work. Obviously I've got to produce
different things on the pitch and lead by example.
That's the biggest pressure of all.
Yeah. All the time. Every time I go out on the pitch. Especially a few months ago where I'd come off the back of
the England qualifying games where we'd played well and I'd played well. I'd scored the goal that took the team through to
the World Cup finals. And then all of a sudden, the manager wanted to rest me. And to be honest, I felt so frustrated. I'd
had a couple of games where I hadn't been playing well because of my tiredness. It just hit me all of a sudden and I couldn't
do anything about it. That was a difficult time because people were turning round and questioning my ability as a footballer.
What does really get to me is when you have these bitter former players coming out in the press and doing articles complaining
about young footballers and the money they're earning these days. There is this one old player who shall remain nameless.
He has written a couple of articles about me in the last two or three months that are absolutely unbelievable. So negative.
That's something I will never do.
So we're not going to see David Beckham, age 55, the football journalist?
No way!
But you're playing the best football of your career, and you're coming up to your contract
renewal. You must be planning your next move very carefully.
It's really important to
get this right because it's an important time in my career now, I'm 26 and this is probably the most important contract I'm
ever going to sign.
Do you feel you have to stay at Manchester United?
I
don't feel pressured because I have always given 100 per cent to Man United and I think the fans know that. I would hope the
fans would turn around and be great to me if I came back to play for another team. But I am happy at Man United and it's not
about getting as much money as I can because I'm not a greedy person. It's just about getting things fair.
What
about your relationship with Alex Ferguson, particularly now that he's staying on for another three years?
He is great manager. We've had our ups and downs but to be honest, he's the reason why I am where I am. Also the
coaches that I've had there as well. There's one man, Eric Harrison, who kept me going while I was at the club.
Do
you watch your games at home?
Only if I'm playing well, or if I've scored. My whole life
revolves around football but sometimes it's just nice to go home.
Is the Argentina
sending-off in the last World Cup still your worst moment ever?
That was a time I'd never
want to go through again. I've always said that it has made me as a person, but I'd never want to back to it. It was a hard
time for me, but to see my nan and my granddad go through what they went though was worse. They had people and press camped
outside their house. I wasn't used to it at that point, though I'd had media training at Man United, But my family, they don't
move in those circles. They just come to watch me play football. It has nothing to do with them. They even had their phones
tapped.
They had their phones tapped?
Yeah. They also had about 20photogrpahers
and camera crews outside their house all night. I had to get away from that by going away to America for two week.
And
the best moment?
The Greece game for me [when Beckham's last minute free kick took England
through to the World Cup finals]. And that game we played in Barcelona [ when Manchester United beat Bayern Munich 2-1 in
another miraculous stoppage time finish] where we won the Champions League. I felt quite emotional after that. I don't think
I've ever felt like crying as much as I did after that game. And I've never felt like I've had to fight back tears after a
game of football.
Don't you often get emotional?
I am an affectionate
person. I get upset easily. I will watch a film and I'll cry. And Victoria is not crying and she'll turn around and say, What
are you doing? Honestly, I cried at Armageddon.
Armageddon?
Armageddon!
At the end, when Liv Tyler loses her father, Bruce Willis. I am definitely a different person on the pitch. Definitely more
confident. I don't know why that is. I guess I'm just more confident of my abilities there. I am extremely focused. Nothing
else matters. And that's when I'm happiest, when I'm out there performing. That is satisfaction to me.
Are
reports of your wealth exaggerated?
Definitely.
What's the biggest
untruth that's been written about you in the papers?
There are so many misconceptions.
There was a story at the weekend that said me and Victoria were buying a life-size bronze for our garden, for 100,000pounds.
Obviously there were some people trying to get publicity out of us. People must read that and think, What, are they stupid?
Even my mum and dad believe it sometimes. That's the horrible thing: that people have these misconceptions of you. And I don't
think there's any way to control it. It's impossible because even when the papers phone up to check if something's true and
you tell them it isn't, they still put it in. That's what happened with this one. We got a phone call where they asked. Are
you buying this statue? And we said, No, don't be ridiculous, and they still put it in. so I don't see how you can control
it.
What about Brooklyn being in the limelight? People have been writing books about him.
What's really upsetting is that people think that it's us that have brought them out. Someone came up to me the
other day and said, Can Brooklyn squiggle in his book that you've done? And I think, But he's only three years old!
There
seems to be an entire publishing industry base upon you and Victoria
I've done the big
photo book and Victoria's done her autobiography and that's it. And people think we do OK! Magazine all the time. Yes, we
did one for the wedding for OK! And Victoria had to do one every week. I don't see the fascination in us. I just see us as
husband and wife and our little boy. People turn around and say we use our son for publicity. Someone said it the other day
who works for Manchester United. Whether they said it or not, it was in the paper that they said we've used Brooklyn for publicity,
which we've never done.
How has fatherhood changed you?
I think it
has changed me in so many ways. I think it's made me grow up. Football is really important to me, but my son and my wife are
the most important things to me in the world. And that's what fatherhood does to you. You don't realize how much you can love
someone. It's a totally different kind of love.
What about the future – what do you look forward
to?
I look forward to the day where, you know, I don't have to [travel so much] – I do obviously because
we've got the house in London. We've got an apartment in Manchester, but my real home is in London. Obviously, I live in Manchester
because I have to. And I love Manchester. Don't get me wrong, I've lived up there for ten years now. People still think I
live in London and travel up there every day, which is amazing. The only time I will go down to the house in London is if
I've got the day off the next day or if I haven't got a game for a week. Other than that, I'm too professional to risk being
tired. So I think when it comes to the point when we're both waking up, I think most people don't realize that we hardly wake
up together, me and Victoria. I think that's the sad thing. She's got to be down here for her work and I've got to be up in
Manchester for mine. When we wake up every morning together, then we'll be happy.
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