David Beckham is unbearably positive: a famous footballer, a smart guy, a sex symbol, a father of four children, a successful entrepreneur and a devoted husband – devoted for a quarter of a century! Much is written and said about the Beckham couple, they do not leave the covers and screens – and they are still together! How can this be? A psychologist analyzes David Beckham’s male type.
A guy from a working class family
David’s father, Edward, was an engineer who designed and installed kitchens. His mother, Sandra, was a hairdresser. There were two more daughters in the family. The Beckhams lived in the small town of Leytonstone, not far from London, very modestly. David’s first football was made from old socks. In early childhood, David dreamed of becoming a hairdresser, and if his father had not been so passionate about football, we would most likely have a famous hairdresser and hairstylist. But one way or another, Edward managed to pass on his devotion to football to his son. He and his family attended all the home matches of his favorite team, Manchester United, and on weekends he coached the local children’s football team. He decided to work with his three-year-old son and discovered that the baby had amazing coordination of movements and reaction for such a tender age. And, most importantly, he liked to play with the ball. Edward began to devote all his free time to working with his son.
“In the evenings, when dad came home from work, we would go and practice kicking. Only he wouldn’t stand in the goal, but between me and the goal. I would try to spin the ball into the goal past him. I would kick until it got dark, and sometimes we would continue after dark, by the light of the windows. People passing by probably thought we were crazy.”
Both his father and mother understood that football was a great opportunity for their son to escape the provinces and achieve success. They were happy when David was accepted to a boarding school in Manchester. They visited him almost every weekend, attended all his matches and cancelled family holidays because of them.
David came home only for the holidays. And maybe that’s why he values family and home so much now – the sports school gave him excellent professional training, but he certainly didn’t have warmth and soulfulness there.
An athlete means stubborn. First successes
He trained with maniacal persistence, which amazed and delighted everyone around him. At 17, the guy became a full-fledged member of the Manchester United team. The team’s head coach, the stern and hot-tempered Sir Alex Ferguson, practically prayed to him, since the handsome footballer became not just an excellent player, but also a star of European scale. He attracted the attention of fans – and to a large extent, female fans: he was as handsome as an ancient god. Money from sponsors flowed into the team like a river.
When David turned 21, he made his first appearance for England at the World Cup. His football career was on the rise.
The Finger of Fate: How David Met Victoria
In 1996, on Christmas Eve, at another training camp, David was lying in bed in front of the TV and saw a video of the fashionable girl group Spice Girls, where a brunette sang and danced in a black vinyl suit that hugged her graceful figure so tightly that there was no room for imagination.
He said to his friend, footballer Henry Neville, with whom he shared a hotel room: “I would marry her!” – “Really?” Neville was surprised, to which David replied: “Of course!”
That brunette was Victoria Adams, one of the five lead singers of the wildly popular group.
Then chance intervened. Simon Fuller, the Spice Girls’ producer, believed that his girls needed famous partners for PR, so he did a photo shoot for them in T-shirts with the names of football teams and players’ surnames. By chance, Victoria, who was indifferent to sports, got a T-shirt with David’s name and number. That’s how she was photographed. David saw this photo in a magazine and decided that it was fate – it meant that Victoria liked him, since she chose him. And when Simon threw a party for his girls with Manchester United football players, David immediately approached her. Victoria considered all football players to be impudent blockheads and stood apart from the guests with an extremely arrogant look. David said that if it weren’t for the photo in the magazine, he wouldn’t have had the courage to talk to Victoria – he felt like Cinderella at the prince’s ball: “Thank you for deigning to do me a favor.” He didn’t dare ask her anything, but he charmed her with his embarrassment.
A month later, already in Manchester, at a general promotional event, he immediately after the “hello” invited her to dinner. Victoria said that she could not, as she was going on tour. Let David give her his phone number, and she would call back when she returned. David replied: “No, write me your phone number, and I will call myself.” She wrote the number on a used train ticket. David keeps this ticket as a talisman and in 2020 even showed it to journalists.
Blessing from above
They met secretly for three months in restaurants in the suburbs of London, so that no one from the press would find out anything, they dined and talked.
Victoria grew up in a wealthy family, graduated from an expensive private school, where she was taken in a Rolls-Royce, studied theater arts, ballet, acting, fashion design, design. David studied nothing except football, and he didn’t even really get along with the school curriculum. But he wanted everything and more – just like Victoria. He wanted to get out of his social group, rise above and see the world. They shared their goals and dreams. And they were completely open with each other. David said that he wanted to see her as his wife. Victoria told him that she could not have children because of severe polycystic ovary syndrome. He replied: “The most important thing for me is you.”
Six months later, Victoria introduced David to her parents. After dinner, he helped the hosts clear the table and went to wash the dishes, which once and for all melted the hearts of the Adams couple. But the Beckham family did not like Victoria. David’s mother was especially against the marriage: she believed that Victoria was too spoiled and wayward, but in fact, she was most worried about her son’s career – what if he starts earning less and her family’s income falls.
David presented his bride with an engagement ring with huge diamonds, and ordered a simpler ring for himself, with a diamond coating. They set a wedding date. And then fate intervened again: Victoria, despite the doctors’ diagnosis, miraculously became pregnant (later this miracle was repeated three more times). The wedding was postponed until the bride gave birth. In 1998, she gave birth to a son, Brooklyn.
In 1999, a dazzling wedding of two stars took place in an old Irish estate. Victoria sold the rights to cover the private ceremony to a reputable publication for $15 million, which became a wonderful start to family life.
Conflict with the coach
1999 was the most successful year in Beckham’s football career, it was as if he had a second wind. But head coach Alex Ferguson was not happy about it – he was madly jealous of David’s wife and was sure that marriage would ruin David as a football player. He saw that David was striving for fame outside the football field, and that Victoria supported him in this. And he considered it almost a crime.
But David felt cramped at his old club, he wanted more. Ferguson was even more upset because David was constantly changing his haircuts, hairstyles and hair color. In response to the coach’s question about why he was doing this, David said: “When I was a child, I wanted to become a hairdresser, like my mother, I’m interested in it.” He changed his casual sports style, his wardrobe included Italian suits for two or three thousand dollars, leading men’s clothing brands signed advertising contracts with him. Ferguson thought that all the changes were happening because of Victoria’s bad influence. He demanded that after the wedding, instead of going on a honeymoon, David return from vacation earlier than everyone else.
The following year, Beckham took time off from training before a match with Leeds to be with Victoria and his sick son, but the coach noticed that he and his wife had appeared at London Fashion Week that same day. Ferguson suspended David from the match and warned him that if he didn’t like the decision, he should leave the club. Victoria persuaded her husband to make peace with the coach. David stayed on the team. But not for long.
Scandalous fight
In 2003, the famous “boot scandal” broke out between Alex and David. Manchester United lost to Arsenal in the 1/8 finals of the FA Cup (0:2), an enraged Sir Alex Ferguson rushed into the dressing room and started shouting that it was all David’s fault, and then grabbed someone’s boot and threw it at him, so accurately that it cut his eyebrow until it bled. Beckham rushed into the fight and grabbed the coach, and four players barely pulled him away from Alex. After such a conflict, reconciliation turned out to be impossible. Alex formally apologized. David formally forgave him. But he was very upset by what happened.
David was choked with resentment: he had been the leading player at Manchester United during the years when the team became the champion of England six times, won the FA Cup twice, won the Champions League, and in the end he was told that he was only a nuisance there. At the instigation of the coach, David was very quickly sold to the club Real Madrid. He, in Ferguson’s opinion, had become too arrogant and fell under the influence of his wife.
