David Beckham was interested in shock 2010 transfer, but wife Victoria said no and refused

Former England boss Sven-Goran Eriksson has revealed he once tried to sign David Beckham at Leicester City, but Victoria refused.

The Swedish manager, who spent a year in charge of the Foxes after being appointed in October 2011, has lifted the lid on the time he attempted to reunite with his former England captain.

Eriksson and Beckham enjoyed a fruitful relationship during their time together with the Three Lions. Across the Swede’s tenure, Becks won 56 of his 115 international caps and scored all but one of his 17 goals in an England shirt.

The former number seven remains the only England player to score at three different World Cup finals.

And speaking to the Sacked in the Morning podcast, Eriksson told of how he tried to convince Golden Balls, who was plying his trade with LA Galaxy at the time, to join him at the King Power Stadium after bumping into David and Victoria at an event in 2010.

Eriksson, who guided England to three successive tournament quarter-final appearances between 2001 and 2006, said: “I asked him at a football event, and he was there with his wife. Before dinner we stood talking to each other.

“I was at Leicester at the time, so I said to him: ‘When your contract finishes in the United States, why don’t you come back to England, sign for Leicester and take us up to the Premier League?’

“He said: ‘Maybe, yeah,’ because he doesn’t want to say no. Then Victoria says: ‘Sven, can you see me in Leicester?’ I said: ‘Well, maybe not.’ Finished discussion about Leicester.”

Alamy

Eriksson left the East Midlands in 2011 and went on to have a four-year stint in the Chinese Super League, managing Guangzhou City (formerly known as Guangzhou R&F), Shanghai Port FC (formerly Shanghai SIPG), and Shenzhen.

Between 2018 and 2019, the 74-year-old Swede was head coach of the Philippines national team. He currently works as an advisor for third tier IF Karlstad in his native country.