David Beckham, aka the suavest bloke ever to grace the earth, has revealed that Manchester United tried to sell him behind his back prior to his big move to Real Madrid in 2003.
Becks became the latest Galactico signing for Los Blancos in the summer of 2003, joining on a four-year contract after a 35 million move but he was pencilled in for a different move away from Old Trafford.
That's because United tried to sell the No.7 to Barcelona without him knowing anything about the transfer.
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It has been well documented that Barcelona's club president at the time, Joan Laporta, was desperate to land Beckham after being elected into the position.
And according to Beckham, the move was agreed behind his back but he made it clear to his agent that his desire was to join Real Madrid if he was going to leave his beloved United.
Recalling the events that occurred in the 2003 summer window on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, he said:
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"I was on holiday in the US with Victoria and one of my friends called and told me it was on Sky Sports that United had agreed terms with Barcelona. I said that wasn't right, I didn't know anything about it.
"I then flew back to London. I tried to speak to Peter Kenyon (United chief executive) and asked to speak to the manager and he said 'no'. I said I needed to speak to him and understand what is going on. He said 'it's true, we have agreed a deal.
"That's when I spoke to my agent and said if I am going to move, I'm going to go to Madrid. Within a day, I was sat with the president of Madrid (Florentino Perez) and we agreed that is where I was going to go."
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At Madrid, Beckham was part of a star-studded side that also contained mercurial talents like Zinedine Zidane, Raul and Luis Figo but the team weren't actually that successful given the quality they had in their side, with Beckham only winning the Spanish Super Cup and one La Liga title in his stint in Spain, with Rafa Benitez's Valencia winning in 2003/04 and Barcelona, where Beckham was close to ending up, winning back-to-back titles in 2004/05 and 2005/06.
It's fair to say that Beckham's still done alright for himself since then, though...
(h/t 90 Min)
Featured Image Credit:Topics: Manchester United, David Beckham, Real Madrid