Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

David Beckham, who currently plays for Real Madrid, is the soccer world’s biggest star.

Tom Watt is an English actor, writer, and broadcaster. Television, film, and stage credits include EastEnders, Patriot Games, and Fever Pitch. Tom has broadcast about soccer extensively in the U.K. and the U.S. He co-produced the innovative children's sports series Rookies for Channel Four television and created the successful Row Z for BBC Choice TV. After presenting sports shows over the past ten years for BBC and independent radio and television stations, he is currently the lead presenter for BBC London's soccer coverage and hosts weekly programs for Arsenal's club TV channel.

As well as writing about soccer for every major U.K. newspaper, Tom is the author of several books about the game: The End, a groundbreaking oral history of Arsenal FC; A Passion for the Game, ninety firsthand accounts of life behind the scenes in English football; The Greatest Stage, the official history of Wembley Stadium; and, most recently, My Side, the bestselling autobiography of David Beckham. Tom also produces schoolbooks built around soccer, the latest of which, a twelve-book series called The Jags, was published earlier this year.

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The Last Word on David Beckham

There is only one David Beckham -- and it's not always the one you read about in the newspapers and magazines or see in the movies. From humble East End London beginnings, the boy with prodigious soccer skills grew up to be one of the most gifted athletes of his generation as well as a sex symbol and fashion icon. Along the way he married Spice Girl Victoria "Posh" Adams, and together they inhabit a celebrity whirlwind of Diana-esque proportions. In Both Feet on the Ground, David talks candidly about the perils of fame (his wife and son were the targets of a notorious kidnapping plot and he is the subject of almost daily tabloid rumors); the struggle to balance his roles as a devoted husband and besotted father with his globetrotting existence as an international soccer star; the behind-the-scenes stories of his most memorable and heartbreaking (if only he could retake that infamous penalty kick against Portugal in Euro 2004) career moments; the controversy surrounding his first year at Real Madrid after his $41 million transfer from Manchester United, the storied English team he joined as a teenager and led for more than a decade; and, finally, his love of America, where he plans to start a soccer school and perhaps, one day, even play professionally.

Both Feet on the Ground is David Beckham's own extraordinary story, told by the man who knows him best -- David Beckham.

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Beckham

Perennial

Chapter One

Murdering the Flowerbeds

'Mrs Beckham? Can David come and have a
game in the park?'

I'm sure Mum could dig it out of the pile: that first video of me in action. There I am, David Robert Joseph Beckham, aged three, wearing thenew Manchester United uniform Dad had bought me for Christmas, playing soccer in the front room of our house in Chingford. Twenty-fiveyears on, and Victoria could have filmed me having a kickabout thismorning with Brooklyn before I left for training. For all that so much hashappened during my life -- and the shirt I'm wearing now is a differentcolor -- some things haven't really changed at all.

As a father watching my own sons growing up, I get an idea of whatI must have been like as a boy; and reminders, as well, of what Dadwas like with me. As soon as I could walk, he made sure I had a ballto kick. Maybe I didn't even wait for a ball. I remember when Brooklynhad only just got the hang of standing up. We were messing aroundtogether one afternoon after training. For some reason there was a tinof baked beans on the floor of the kitchen and, before I realized it, he'dtaken a couple of unsteady steps towards it and kicked the thing ashard as you like. Frightening really: you could fracture a metatarsal doingthat. Even as I was hugging him, I couldn't help laughing. That musthave been me.

It's just there, wired into the genes. Look at Brooklyn: he always wants to be playing soccer, running, kicking, diving about. And he's alreadylistening, like he's ready to learn. By the time he was three and a half, if I rolled the ball to him and told him to stop it, he'd trap it by puttinghis foot on it. Then he'd take a step back and line himself up beforekicking it back to me. He's also got a great sense of balance. We werein New York when Brooklyn was about two and a half, and I rememberus coming out of a restaurant and walking down some steps. He wasstanding, facing up towards Victoria and I, his toes on one step and hisheels rocking back over the next. This guy must have been watchingfrom inside the restaurant, because suddenly he came running out andasked us how old our son was. When I told him, he explained he wasa child psychologist and that for Brooklyn to be able to balance himselfover the step like that was amazing for a boy of his age.

It's a little too early to tell with my younger boy, Romeo, but Brooklynhas got a real confidence that comes from his energy, his strength, andhis sense of coordination. He's been whizzing around on two-wheeledscooters -- I mean flying -- for years already. He's got a belief in himself, physically, that I know I had as well. When I was a boy, I only ever feltreally sure of myself when I was playing soccer. In fact I'd still say thatabout me now, although Victoria has given me confidence in myself inall sorts of other ways. I know she'll do the same for Brooklyn andRomeo too.

For all that father and son have in common, Brooklyn and I are verydifferent. By the time I was his age, I was already telling anyone whowould listen: 'I'm going to play soccer for Manchester United. 'He sayshe wants to be a soccer player like Daddy, but United? We haven'theard that out of him yet. Brooklyn's a really strong, well-built boy. Me, though, I was always skinny. However much I ate it never made anydifference while I was growing up. When I was playing soccer, I musthave seemed even smaller because, if I wasn't with my dad and hismates, I was over at Chase Lane Park, just round the corner from thehouse, playing with boys twice my age. I don't know if it was because I was good or because they could kick me up in the air and I'd comeback for more, but they always turned up on the doorstep after school:

'Mrs Beckham? Can David come and have a game in the park?'

I spent a lot of time in Chase Lane Park. If I wasn't there with thebigger boys like Alan Smith, who lived two doors away on our road, I'dbe there with my dad. We'd started by kicking a ball about in the backgarden but I was murdering the flowerbeds so, after he got in from hisjob as a heating engineer, we'd go to the park together and just practiceand practice for hours on end. All the strengths in my game are theones Dad taught me in the park twenty years ago: we'd work on touchand striking the ball properly until it was too dark to see. He'd kick theball up in the air as high as he could and get me to control it. Then itwould be kicking it with each foot, making sure I was doing it right. Itwas great, even if he did drive me mad sometimes. 'Why can't you justgo in goal and let me take shots at you?' I'd be thinking. I suppose youcould say he was pushing me along. You'd also have to say, though, that it was all I wanted to do and I was lucky Dad was so willing to doit with me.

My dad, Ted, played himself for a local team called King fisher in theForest and District League ...

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