THE UPS AND DOWNS OF THE BECKHAMS

LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT ENGAGED RED CARD IT’S A BOY!

1997

David meets Victoria Adams at a charity soccer match and she gives him her phone number written on the back of a plane ticket. The Spice Girls are at the height of their fame and Posh Spice has always been David’s favourite, so he’s delighted when the sexy singer starts regularly attending his Man United games.

“I’d seen her the week before, and I must have caught her eye because then the week after she came to another game,” he says. “She was obviously there for a reason and I was hoping I was that reason. And apparently I was.” JAN 1998

Becks gets down on bended knee over dinner at a restaurant in Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, England.

Becks becomes one of most hated men in the UK after he kicks out at Argentinian player Diego Simeone during a group game in the 1998 Fifa World Cup. David is red-carded and England play on with 10 men. They draw with Argentina but it isn’t enough – they need a win to go through to the knockout stages.

As far as England fans are concerned, it’s all David’s fault and he even receives death threats. There’s plenty of speculation that Victoria will leave him but she hangs in there. MARCH 1999

Brooklyn Joseph Beckham makes his appearance and his name raises many eyebrows. Posh loves it though.

“I’d always liked the name Brooke and then we suddenly thought about Brooklyn,” she says. “I’d always liked it as a place – it’s very multicultural, very grounded. “It was only afterwards that I realised how appropriate it was because it was in New York that I found out I was pregnant and where David came after the World Cup.”