David Beckham: Remembering the Man Utd Legend's First Year as a Professional

02 July 2020 13:30

It was a completely unremarkable setting for the senior debut of one of the best English footballers there has ever been. The Goldstone Ground in Brighton, a League Cup second round first leg, 16,649 fans and a 17-year-old boy by the name of David Beckham taking the first steps in a career that would before long make him one of the famous people on the planet.


Despite growing up in London, Beckham was a United fan through and through thanks to his father, Ted. He won a talent competition at a Bobby Charlton Soccer School aged 11, winning a trip to Barcelona, and recalled over a decade later that he remembered the Old Trafford legend referring to him as the best 11-year-old he had ever seen in six years of running the Soccer School.


United ultimately locked onto Beckham soon afterwards when a scout watching him in action for district side Waltham Forest Under-12s back home in north east London.


Following successful trials, he went on to sign schoolboy forms at 14, training with the club during school holidays and over the summer, before moving to Manchester permanently in 1991 upon finishing school and signing a YTS contract.


Gary Neville, Nicky Butt, Paul Scholes also joined the club as new trainees that same year. The group, later known as the ‘Class of ‘92’ came under the watchful eye of esteemed youth coach Eric Harrison and were a core part of the 1991/92 FA Youth Cup winning side in that first season – bizarrely, Beckham didn’t actually play in the competition until the semi-final stage.


He celebrated his 17th birthday in between the first and second legs of the final against Crystal Palace and it was United’s first triumph in a competition they had once dominated since 1964.


Four months later, Beckham’s senior debut came. It was September 1992, the first season of the new Premier League era, and the young midfielder was named on the bench for a midweek League Cup clash against third tier Brighton.


It was a strong United side featuring the likes of Steve Bruce, Gary Pallister, Denis Irwin, Paul Ince, Mark Hughes and Andrei Kanchelskis, but the lower league opposition frustrated the visitors.


With United leading 1-0, Alex Ferguson saw fit to turn to Beckham, sending the 17-year-old on in place of Kanchelskis. He was wearing number 14 on his back that night. Legend has it the teenager was initially greeted with ‘Who the f***ing hell are you?’ chants from the Brighton fans, although they were soon drowned out by the jubilation of an equaliser.


A week earlier, Beckham had been named on the bench for a UEFA Cup tie against Torpedo Moscow at Old Trafford. He was unused, although it was the night Gary Neville made his senior United debut.


Beckham was still only on an apprentice contract at the time and it wasn’t until January 1993 that he actually signed his first professional deal with United. No more first-team chances came his way that season and he was part of the side that returned to the 1993 FA Youth Cup final. The holders failed to retain their title, however, and lost 4-1 to Leeds on aggregate.


The 1992/93 season was technically the very first of Beckham’s senior career, but it was 1994/95 that presented his breakthrough chances, including a short, famous loan at Preston.


Two years after his first-team debut against Brighton, Beckham made full United debut when he was chosen to start a League Cup tie against Port Vale in September 1994. Paul Scholes scored twice in the 2-1 win and Beckham kept his place for the return leg, and the next round against Newcastle.


After that, another chance soon came in the Champions League game against Galatasaray in December 1994. He scored his first senior goal in that 4-0 victory.


Then came Preston, whom he joined in February 1995. In My Story, published in 1998, Beckham revealed that the news he was being sent to the bottom division side concerned him.


“I was shocked at first, then a little hurt that [Ferguson] should want to let me go. Then I was downright worried about it. What if United didn’t fancy me anymore?” he said.


On the advice of his dad, Beckham gave it his all. Despite the quality of the players he was with in United’s reserve team at the time, the experience of playing first-team games in the Football League, even in the basement tier, gave him something the junior environment couldn’t.


Ultimately, he played only five games for Preston, scoring twice – including one direct from a corner.


David Moyes was a senior Preston player at the time and recalled during an interview with talkSPORT as recently as 2019 that he didn’t have high expectations for a 19-year-old so skinny…until he saw him play for the first time in training.


“He had nothing on him. I thought he was going to get booted all over the place…[but] got to say the minute he came in he was unbelievable. He was brilliant,” the Scot said.


“I remember him practising his free kicks and corner kicks, and he scored one goal for Preston and it was direct from a corner. It wasn’t luck, it was practise.


“He was only a boy but at that time he was definitely on the right track. The biggest thing was Sir Alex recognised after a month on loan that he was good enough to go into Manchester United’s first team, so he took him back and put him straight in.”


Beckham got into the United team after returning from Preston

Beckham did indeed return to Manchester and made his Premier League debut when he started a 0-0 draw against Leeds in early April 1995. He then started the next two league matches that month, as well as the FA Cup semi-final against Crystal Palace.


Beckham’s last appearance that season came one day before his 20th birthday as a substitute in a win over Coventry. By then, the groundwork had been laid and the foundations built.



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Source: 90min