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Saturday, 17 March 2007

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David Beckham: I was bullied at school

With nothing on his mind but football, teenage Becks was odd one out

Most teenage boys are busy trying to get up to no good - but not David Beckham. He kept his mind concentrated on kicking a ball.

'When I was 16 I had temptations,' he admits. 'Friends wanted to take me down to the corner shop to get a bottle of cider and stay out for the night.

'But my instinct was to stay in, watch Match Of The Day and prepare for a Sunday league game.'

His classmates thought this a bit cissy - and gave him some stick...but he ignored them.

'There was a bullying side to starting sport so young,' he tells Guardian Weekend. 'Because you’re not going out, on the Monday at school, people would be like, "You stayed in, you played football.”

'But I bumped into those same people a year ago and they were like, “Can we come and watch you play in Madrid?”’