Beckham: My father told me I’d done well ...when I got 100th cap
DAVID Beckham has revealed he had to wait more than two decades for his dad’s approval – getting told “you’ve made it, boy” only after he earned 100 caps for his country.
Beckham is one of England’s most celebrated footballers, eventually playing 115 times for the national team while winning six Premier League titles with Manchester United and the Champions League and La Liga in Spain with Real Madrid.
The former player, who retired from the game in 2013, told James Corden on his podcast series, This Life of Mine, his drive and desire comes from decades of wanting to please his father Ted.
Beckham, 48, said: “My dad never told me I’d done well really until my hundredth cap. That was the first time my dad turned around to me and said, ‘You’ve made it, boy’.”
He said he did not get the same recognition at any other point in his career – despite also winning two FA Cups and four Community Shields.
The moment of praise came when he sat with Ted, inset, at dinner after he had won the landmark cap playing against France in Paris in March 2008.
Speaking on his Netflix documentary last year, Beckham insisted his dad’s harsh treatment had helped him when he suffered a backlash from supporters after being sent off in the World Cup and blamed for England’s exit from the competition in 1998. He said: “I was able to handle being abused by the fans. because of the way my dad had been to me. “My dad was absolutely obsessed with United. His dream was to have a son that played for Manchester United. “My dad would take me out for hours. Left foot, right foot, over and over again and it was all about control. He would boot the ball up and say, ‘Not good enough, do it again’.”
Ted Beckham, 76, has said: “I was hard but it turned out to be the right thing.”
In the podcast interview, Beckham told Corden he and his two sisters, Joanne and Lynne, were raised by two hard-working parents, Ted and Sandra, in a home with a “lot of love” but said that his father always pushed him to do more at his Sunday league football team.
Beckham added that he has not been as tough on his own children, admitting he is “a lot softer” with Brooklyn, Romeo, Cruz and Harper.