22: David Beckham, Manchester United, Panini Football Sticker Album, The Official PFA Collection, A-Z of ALL the Top Players from All the Top Teams in ‘97

Those of you who have been reading this blog for a while will maybe have spotted a few trends in terms of our subject matter. I have written one or two (ok, eight) posts about former Crystal Palace stars and these have been interspersed with a few (ten) stories about Rich Allinson’s torrid love affair with Grimsby Town. There might have been a couple of things about Welsh goalkeepers from Emlyn and some (several) references to Mat Jolin-Beech’s fantasy teams in there too. Amidst these there have been some Football Manager heroes, a few mentions of how good Coventry City’s kits were in the 90s and, every now and then, a genuine legend of the beautiful game. It’s fair to say that today’s subject fits more into the latter category. Shame he didn’t have a short spell on loan with Reading or Palace for good measure.

David Robert Joseph Beckham OBE. 115 England caps. Champions League winner. Galactico. MLS pioneer. Free kick maestro. Global brand. Goldenballs. So much has been written about Becks that in the year 2000 Staffordshire University launched their ‘David Beckham Studies’ module as part of their Sociology course. Staffordshire were derided, inaccurately and unfairly, for the academic credibility of their degree programme when what it made clear was that Beckham had become bigger than the game in which he had made his name. That was twenty years ago and before the free kick against Greece, the metatarsal or the investments in Salford City and Inter Miami. Could you really blame a university if they dedicated a whole degree programme to his career? Well, maybe for £9,000 a year, yes.

The stratospheric nature of David Beckham’s career sometimes makes you forget the gradual emergence of the future England captain and it’s here that a slightly concerning collection of football sticker albums can be quite handy. Above is not the picture of a global superstar with a Spice Girl wife and a plethora of sponsorship deals but the face of a shy young man who had just fulfilled a lifetime ambition of breaking into Manchester United’s first team. As mentioned before with this particular album all of the players have some sort of quote attributed to them and a young Becks’ took the opportunity to tell the world he had always wanted to play for the Red Devils. Even he couldn’t have known quite how well that would work out for him.

Along with such luminaries as Nicky Butt, Keith Gillespie, Gary Neville, Paul Scholes and…Simon Davies, David Beckham was part of the infamous ‘Class of 92’ which led United to FA Youth Cup glory and it was in that same year that he made his first team debut in a League Cup game against Brighton and Hove Albion at the age of 17. A smattering of games followed in subsequent campaigns, including four in the Premier League in 1994/95, following a loan spell at Preston North End where he had first demonstrated his prowess from set pieces with a goal directly from a corner. An inspired performance from Ludek Miklosko at Upton Park denied Manchester United the Premier League title and the SAS-fronted Blackburn Rovers instead topped the pile. Later that month Neville Southall’s heroics meant that Everton pipped United to the FA Cup signalling the first season since 1988/89 that Alex Ferguson’s charges had failed to collect some silverware.

The departure of the likes of Paul Ince and Andrei Kanchelskis alongside the suspension of the talismanic Eric Cantona meant that Manchester United headed into the 1995/96 season with an inexperienced starting line-up. Beckham was on the scoresheet as a grey-shirted United side fell to a 3-1 defeat to Aston Villa on the opening day which led Alan Hansen to utter his now famous prophecy that “you can’t win anything with kids”. Everyone’s favourite dour pundit seemed to be on to something following early exits from the League and UEFA Cups at the hands of York City and Rotor Volgograd respectively. However, undeterred, and aided by Kevin Keegan’s Newcastle United’s capitulation, Manchester United went to Middlesbrough and got something on the final day to regain the Premier League title and followed this up with victory over Liverpool in the FA Cup final. Beckham made 40 appearances in all competitions and contributed eight goals and had established himself as the club’s first choice right midfielder.

Selhurst Park has been the scene of some incredible Premier League goals and, as both Carlton Palmer and Tony Yeboah had proven in the 1995/96 season, Wimbledon were often happy recipients of potential goal of the season award winners. Perhaps it was with this in mind that David Beckham, with United 2-0 up on the opening day of the 1996/97 campaign, decided to take aim from well within his own half and lob Dons’ keeper Neil Sullivan to crown a 3-0 victory for the reigning champions. It was at this point that Beckham announced himself on the world stage and, by the end of the season, had added another Premier League winners medal to his collection as well as an impressive twelve goals in 49 appearances in all competitions. When Eric Cantona shocked the footballing world by announcing his retirement ahead of the 1997/98 campaign Beckham was handed his iconic no.7 jersey. The rest, as they say, is history.

Reflecting on that goal against Wimbledon Beckham mused: “The ball seemed to be in the air for hours and it all went quiet. Then the ball went it and it just erupted…It changed my life.” Looking up at the 22 year old nervously smiling out from underneath his curtains it’s hard to disagree with him.