It takes the effort of an extraordinary and talented player to take the game to new levels, and David Beckham is the kind of player that makes fans stand up.

The almost meteoric rise to fame of David Beckham had humble beginnings. His father, David Edward Beckham, known as Ted, was a gas fitter’s mate and Sandra West was a hairdresser when they married in 1969 in Hoxton, east London, and spent their honeymoon in Bognor Regis before returning to a terraced house in Leytonstone. Three children followed - Lynne in 1972, David in 1975 and Joanne in 1982. His father had dreamed of being a footballer as a boy; now the dream would be passed on to David.