BOOTY-FUL MEMORIES FOR BECKS

IT WAS the goal that changed David Beckham’s life.

But when the Manchester United midfielder sent a shot from the halfway line sailing over the head of Wimbledon keeper Neil Sullivan in August 1996 he was actually wearing someone else’s boots.

Beckham had asked Adidas for a pair of their new Predators, but the sportswear giants only had one pair left in his size. And they had been customised for Rangers midfielder Charlie Miller, with the Scottish midfielder’s first name stitched into the tongue.

That didn’t bother

Beckham and when he put United 3-0 up from inside his own half at

Selhurst Park with a goal described by Sir Alex

Ferguson (above) as “the goal of the season”, a star was born.

“I hit it and I remember looking up at the ball, which seemed to be heading somewhere between the goal and the corner flag,” recalled Beckham.

“The swerve I’d put on the shot, though, started to bring it back in and the thought flashed through my mind. ‘This has got a chance here’.”

Yet it wasn’t the first time Beckham had scored for the Reds from long range. A new book about the former United midfielder – Beckha Beckham: The Making of a Me Megastar – describes how a s similar strike by Uruguayan midfielder Jose Luis

Zalazar for Albacete against Tenerife had captured his imagination. It was October 1991 and Beckham was preparing for a game for United’s B team against Bury when someone showed them a video of Zalazar’s strike.

Goalkeeper Kevin Pilkington recalled: “After we’d watched it, Becks turned round to the lads and said he was going to do that today – and he did.”