David Beckham was known as an inspirational leader and captain for the Three Lions, and one former Premier League star has opened up on sharing a pitch with the Manchester United and England icon
Former Manchester City and England star Shaun Wright-Phillips has revealed that David Beckham gave him words of encouragement prior to making his Three Lions debut. Wright-Phillips earned his first England cap in August 2004 when the ex-Chelsea man came on as a substitute against Ukraine and scored the third goal in a 3–0 win.
The 43-year-old has now opened up on the backing he received from the England captain and has given fans a glimpse into the altruistic nature of the Manchester United legend.
“I came on as a sub for David Beckham when I made my England debut. Coming on to the pitch in place of the captain! In that moment, it’s all instinct,” Wright-Phillips exclusively told Ladbrokes.
“First of all, people don’t know what Becks is like. When I made my England debut, Becks was mega all the way through the camp.
“The rest of the boys were fantastic as well, but from somebody knowing that I’m competing against them for their position, I’m trying to take that away from them, I couldn’t have asked for a better person to come up against because he didn’t knock me down.”
Wright-Phillips, who won the Premier League in 2006 at Stamford Bridge, also spoke about the words of affirmation imparted to him by the ex-Real Madrid star.
“He made me raise my levels, but he also wanted me to do well. And if he wasn’t playing well, he would say – whether he meant it or not – ‘you should be playing in front of me because right now you are playing better than me. So when you get on that pitch, when I come off, show them what it is you can do.’
“And that subconsciously takes a lot of pressure off, elevates your confidence a little bit that there is belief in you there – obviously because you wouldn’t be in a squad, but to hear it one-on-one like that, it just meant a lot.”
While Wright-Phillips’ England career stalled after his appearance at the World Cup in 2010, but he is still filled with pride when it comes to reminiscing about his first England goal.
“When I did actually get out on the pitch and the situation occurred when I got the ball, it was weird because it was just like, I had the ball and there were about 15 yards in front of me, so I thought, ‘OK! I’ll go forward a bit’.
“And then I still had 15 yards in front of me. It’s like nobody came because they didn’t know whether to come, so I just kept going forward until I got into the position where I thought that I’ve got to try to get a shot off here.
“You know, you might think that’s my favourite moment in an England shirt, but to be honest, every time I put on the jersey or every time I went to the camp I always found it a privilege.
“I’ll be honest, when I was younger, I never set out saying to myself: ‘Right, you’re going to play for your country’. My mindset as a kid was that I want to be a professional footballer. And when I became a professional footballer, then I just wanted to stay in the first team all the time and be around it all the time.”
Wright-Phillips earned 36 caps with England, scoring six goals. His club career saw him line up for City on two separate occasions, Chelsea, Queens Park Rangers and several sides in the MLS. He announced his retirement from football in 2019 after a brief stay with Phoenix Rising FC.
Meanwhile, Dan Burn could make his England debut on Friday evening at Wembley against Albania off the back of his Carabao Cup final heroics for Newcastle United at the same stadium last Sunday.
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