A sporting icon courted by prime ministers previous and current, newly knighted Sir David Beckham is famend for being extraordinarily media savvy.
By no means extra so than once I interviewed him for Sky Information on the 2008 Beijing Olympics, after he took half within the closing ceremony having performed a key function in London’s profitable bid to host the 2012 Video games.
Talking about Sir Alex Ferguson within the interview, canny Sir Becks heaped reward on his outdated boss in our interview. However he’d been much less complimentary about his outdated boss in a dialog with prime minister Gordon Brown, I later realized.
Sir David took half within the closing ceremony on the Beijing Olympics. Pic: Reuters
I would travelled to Beijing with Mr Brown, by way of Afghanistan, and we spent the ultimate night of the Video games on the handover occasion, when Boris Johnson – then London mayor – famously spoke in his speech about “wiff waff” (desk tennis) coming dwelling.
Throughout his Beijing go to, Mr Brown had been selling the thought 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 mentioned wistfully and apparently affectionately once I requested him about being re-united together with his former Manchester United supervisor throughout the interview. “Like a father to me.”
Later, on the flight dwelling to the UK, once I advised Gordon Brown in regards to the interview, the prime minister laughed. “That is humorous,” he mentioned.
“Why?” I requested him.
He replied: “He advised me ‘If Sir Alex is supervisor, he will not choose 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 enjoying for LA Galaxy within the US.
However regardless of his canny, PR-savvy solutions in my interview, I noticed him work the room that evening in Beijing and glad-hand relentlessly.
He gave each interview requested of him and turned on the allure 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.
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 impressive footballer all through his profession.
“However not solely that, he has been a superb ambassador for this nation, not least if we keep in mind all of the work he did on serving to us win London 2012.”
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There was certainly a Nice Britain males’s soccer staff on the Olympics, nevertheless it was coached by former England legend Stuart Pearce, not Sir Alex.
And Pearce, nicknamed “psycho” for his aggressive model on the pitch, did not choose Becks both, although he claimed he’d confronted strain from Downing Avenue to incorporate him.
Then in 2017, David Cameron’s former spin physician Craig Oliver claimed a senior Tory cupboard minister – thought to have been George Osborne – steered giving Becks a peerage and appointing him sports activities minister in a 2013 cupboard reshuffle.
That by no means occurred both, clearly, although no less than now David Beckham is also a knight – similar to his “father determine” Sir Alex.
