David Beckham's dad put him on 'Guinness and raw eggs' diet before joining Man Utd

Ted Beckham, the father of David Beckham, has confessed that he was concerned about his son's stature and put him on a diet of "Guinness and raw eggs" to build him up before his Manchester United career began.

Beckham's upbringing may surprise some, the football star admitted to struggling in school and not having many friends as a youngster.

This resulted in Beckham's boyhood adage that "from the moment I got home from school to the moment I slept, I spent my time out in the garden" playing football.

Beckham rose from humble origins to the tremendous heights of international recognition that he now enjoys.

His father was a gas engineer who worked out of a red Toyota van. 

"I would have no other colour," Ted Beckham remarked, referring to his passion for Manchester United.

Ted was anxious that his son might be too little for the professional game when he was a kid.

"He'd won 92 games without getting beat, he was that good," Ted said, but even this success didn’t stop him from worrying about his son.

"I was a bit worried about the size of him so that's when we started giving him Guinness and a raw egg. To be fair to the boy, he did it every week."

The diet may have helped the future great bulk up, but it failed to impress Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson. "He came to us as a small, skinny little boy," Sir Alex Ferguson says in the documentary, but that didn't stop the Scottish manager from bringing in the local lad.

David began his career at the Manchester United junior system in 1992, capturing the interest of legendary manager Sir Alex Ferguson as part of the "famous class of 92" with luminaries such as Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs, and the Neville twins Phil and Gary.

"The phone rings, and it rang at a time when we all look at each other like "who's calling this time of night?" Beckham remembered the first time Ferguson phoned him. My mother picked it and said, "It's Sir Alex Ferguson, this is Sir Alex Ferguson."

Beckham's career was spectacular, and he immediately found himself in the star-studded first squad under Sir Alex. 

His playing style, particularly the characteristic crosses and set-piece wizardry for which he became known, catapulted him to international prominence.

Sir Alex Ferguson and the Class of '92 united to conquer English football, winning six Premier League championships and creating history with the memorable triple in 1999.

Beckham’s time at United had its share of drama, and in 2003, he bid farewell to Old Trafford for Real Madrid. 

Explaining his decision, he said he felt he was being pushed out of Manchester United and that he wanted to take control of his destiny; “I don’t want to leave, but if you want me to leave, I want to move to the club that I want to move to.”

“If I’m being pushed out of Man United, this is where I wanna go.”