David Beckham - David Beckham - My Side

with Tom Watt

Tom Watt, who collaborated with David Beckham

on this book, is an established author, actor,

sportswriter and broadcaster

Published by HarperCollins Publishers 77-85 Fulham Palace Road Hammersmith, W6 8JB

First published in hardback 2003 by CollinsWillow

The Author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

© Footwork Productions Ltd 2004

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 HarperCollins e-books.

HarperCollins Publishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication.

Source ISBN: 9780007157334

Ebook edition © APRIL 2010 ISBN: 9780007373444

Version: 2014-12-03

To Victoria, Brooklyn and Romeo

The three people who always make me smile

My Babies Forever

Love David

Cover Page

Title Page David Beckham: My Side David Beckham with Tom Watt

Copyright Copyright Copyright Dedication The Back Garden, August 2004 1 Murdering the Flowerbeds 2 The Man in the Brown Sierra 3 Home from Home 4 DB on the Tarmac 5 The One with the Legs 6 Don’t Cry for Me 7 Thanks for Standing By Me 8 I Do 9 The Germans 10 My Foot in It 11 Beckham (pen) 12 Bubble Beckham 13 About Loyalty 14 United Born and Bred 15 For Real: Hala Madrid! 16 Futbol, La Vida 17 It’s Christmas 18 Let’s Face It Career Record Index Acknowledgements About the Publisher Tom Watt, who collaborated with David Beckham on this book, is an established author, actor, sportswriter and broadcaster Published by HarperCollins Publishers 77-85 Fulham Palace Road Hammersmith, W6 8JB First published in hardback 2003 by CollinsWillow The Author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library © Footwork Productions Ltd 2004 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 HarperCollins e-books. HarperCollins Publishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication. Source ISBN: 9780007157334 Ebook edition © APRIL 2010 ISBN: 9780007373444 Version: 2014-12-03

Dedication To Victoria, Brooklyn and Romeo The three people who always make me smile My Babies Forever Love David

The Back Garden, August 2004

1 Murdering the Flowerbeds

2 The Man in the Brown Sierra

3 Home from Home

4 DB on the Tarmac

5 The One with the Legs

6 Don’t Cry for Me

7 Thanks for Standing By Me

8 I Do

9 The Germans

10 My Foot in It

11 Beckham (pen)

12 Bubble Beckham

13 About Loyalty

14 United Born and Bred

15 For Real: Hala Madrid!

16 Futbol, La Vida

17 It’s Christmas

18 Let’s Face It

Career Record

Index

Acknowledgements

About the Publisher

‘What matters most in my life I can see in front of me.’

In Madrid, the evenings are perfect like this more often than not. It’s just gone seven, the sun’s down from the sky but it’s still warming my heart and warming my bones. There’s a glass of red wine on the table in front of me. And another in front of Victoria. Brooklyn’s being some kind of superhero, plunging in and out of the little pool a few yards down the garden from this terrace where Mr and Mrs are sitting, feet up, cheering him on. Romeo’s at the bottom of the steps that take you out onto the grass, being best friends with Carlos. That’s the dog, not the left-back. It’s a long way from Chingford but, just like the house I grew up in, it’s not just a casa . It feels like a home, somewhere you belong. Un hogar , they call it in Spain.

Back from a summer away and Euro 2004, we’ve found a place to live together, the four of us, here in Madrid. We’ve taken a three-year lease – my contract at Real finishes in 2007 – on a house in La Moraleja, a residential area to the north of the city. We’re twenty minutes from the training ground and from the Santiago Bernebeu; half an hour from the middle of town. And just a few minutes from where Brooklyn is going to start school next month. La Moraleja is green and quiet – todo tranquillo – and the trees spread shade across our garden, which I can see the end of from here, for most of every day.

I’ve got my first competitive game of a new season waiting for me in a week’s time, after last season left Real Madrid needing to qualify for the group stage of the Champions League this time around. It’s crossed my mind a couple of times recently that we had to do the same at United before going on to win the thing back in 1999. I don’t know if you could ever have quite the same feeling ahead of a new season with any other club: here at Real our own sense of ambition in the dressing room is as tangible as the sense of expectation around the streets of the city. This is a football club, after all, where anything – anything at all – seems possible. Each fresh start feels like history waiting to be made. What’s more, we know we owe the madridistas after what happened to us –and to them – last spring.

I’ve been in Madrid for twelve months now. A year ago, all of it was new, and as confusing as it was exciting. I was waiting to find out what was expected of me; what I could expect from life at a new club and in a new city. Now, I’ve found my way past most of those questions. I mean: I know now what I’m going to be asked. The answers, of course, will have to wait for kick-off. And a new manager at the Bernebeu, José Antonio Camacho, has already made sure we understand that we’ll need to find the right ones.