A sporting icon courted by prime ministers previous and current, newly knighted Sir David Beckham is famend for being extraordinarily media savvy.
Talking about Sir Alex Ferguson within the interview, canny Sir Becks heaped reward on his outdated boss in our interview. However he’d been much less complimentary about his outdated boss in a dialog with prime minister Gordon Brown, I later discovered.
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Sir David took half within the closing ceremony on the Beijing Olympics. Pic: Reuters
I would travelled to Beijing with Mr Brown, through Afghanistan, and we spent the ultimate night of the Video games on the handover get together, when Boris Johnson – then London mayor – famously spoke in his speech about “wiff waff” (desk tennis) coming house.
Throughout his Beijing go to, Mr Brown had been selling the concept of a Nice Britain soccer staff competing on the 2012 Video games and there was hypothesis about Sir Alex being the staff’s coach.
“Aah, Sir Alex,” Becks stated wistfully and apparently affectionately after I requested him about being re-united along with his former Manchester United supervisor in the course of the interview. “Like a father to me.”
Later, on the flight house to the UK, after I informed Gordon Brown in regards to the interview, the prime minister laughed. “That’s funny,” he stated.
“Why?” I requested him.
He replied: “He told me ‘If Sir Alex is manager, he won’t pick me!'”
Beckham performed for Fergie at Manchester United from 1995 till 2003, when he joined Actual Madrid amid claims that Ferguson disapproved of the participant’s showbiz way of life.
By 2008 he was taking part in for LA Galaxy within the US.
However regardless of his canny, PR-savvy solutions in my interview, I noticed him work the room that night time in Beijing and glad-hand relentlessly.
He gave each interview requested of him and turned on the appeal on behalf of UK PLC to everybody current.
For politicians and prime ministers, sportsmen and girls like Beckham are pure gold. David Cameron was additionally a fan and was photographed sitting alongside Becks on the London Video games.
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David Beckham and David Cameron watched BMX collectively on the London Olympics. Pic: Reuters
When “Goldenballs”, as spouse Victoria referred to as him, retired from soccer a 12 months later, a No 10 spokesman gushed: “The prime minister’s view is that David Beckham has been an outstanding footballer throughout his career.
“However not solely that, he has been an excellent ambassador for this nation, not least if we bear in mind all of the work he did on serving to us win London 2012.”
There was indeed a Great Britain men’s football team at the Olympics, but it was coached by former England legend Stuart Pearce, not Sir Alex.
And Pearce, nicknamed “psycho” for his aggressive style on the pitch, didn’t pick Becks either, though he claimed he’d faced pressure from Downing Street to include him.
Then in 2017, David Cameron’s former spin doctor Craig Oliver claimed a senior Tory cabinet minister – thought to have been George Osborne – suggested giving Becks a peerage and appointing him sports minister in a 2013 cabinet reshuffle.
That never happened either, obviously, though at least now David Beckham is also a knight – just like his “father determine” Sir Alex.
