Moment With David Beckham Left England Players Thinking Fabio Capello Was A 'D***head'

Former England manager Fabio Capello had a reputation for being strict when in charge of the Three Lions, and one moment involving David Beckham made players think the boss was a 'd***head.'

Capello was in charge of the national team from January 2008 and left just over four years later, resigning on the back of John Terry's removal as captain.

The Italian was known for being pretty strict on his players, and it was a complete removal from the jovial days under Sven Goran Eriksson or Steve McClaren calling his players by nicknames such as 'Stevey' and 'Wazza.'

However it's not just that the five time Serie A winning manager was strict, there was actually an incident that left players thinking he was a 'd***head,' according to Ben Foster, with Capello interrupting Beckham in the changing room at Wembley.

"It wasn't a particularly happy place. He was a very strict manager," the former England goalkeeper said of the camp on his podcast.

"I've got a few stories, but here's one. David Beckham was in the England squad at the time and we were playing at Wembley... I can't remember the game.

"It was before the warm-up. You normally get into the changing room about an hour and a half before kick-off, you go out for warm-up about 40 minutes before kick-off.

Beckham about to come on as a substitute during Capello's reign. Image: PA Images

"You've got another 45 minutes before where you're getting your kit on, getting a rub, doing some stretching.

"In the Wembley changing rooms there's space everywhere, there's space to burn.

"Becks was in there playing two-touch with someone, I don't remember who. He was doing this two-touch and keeping it up, and Capello just bowled in, he always had a cob on basically, a moody face.

"He walked straight in the middle of these two players, took the ball and just walked off with it.

Foster was one of England's keepers during Capello's spell. Image: PA Images

"It was as if to say 'this is the changing rooms. Stop d***ing about.'

"Everyone was watching it thinking 'this is David Beckham. He's just nicked the ball off David Beckham.'

"I understand being strict, but that makes everyone look at you and think 'what a d***head. Why'd you bother doing that?'"

Despite his four years in charge, Capello was only the manager for one tournament during his time as the boss of the Three Lions.

He came in after the team failed to qualify for Euro 2008, before the team had a poor World Cup in South Africa in 2010, which resulted in them losing 4-1 in the second round to Germany, with Frank Lampard's infamous ruled out goal.

Capello had already taken the captaincy off Terry once during his spell as national team boss but disagreed with the decision the second time round, and subsequently quit before Euro 2012.

It sounds like it was unlikely the players shed any tears...

Topics: England, David Beckham

Ryan Sidle

Ryan is a journalist for SPORTbible with over eight years of experience. Passionate about all sports, he mainly covers football and F1 - Daniel Ricciardo once spent an entire interview referring to him as 'Ryan Gosling,' still his proudest moment.

@Sidler28