Former Manchester United and England striker Teddy Sheringham has admitted he tried to convince David Beckham to let him take the iconic freekick against Greece in 2001. The pair knew each other extremely well, having played in the same side at Old Trafford for four seasons, as well as donning the England shirt together across six years.
Teddy Sheringham said: “I think back to that famous game against Greece at Old Trafford in 2001 where David Beckham scores the late free-kick to send us through to the World Cup. First of all, I’d already scored to make it 1-1 in the game, so I was buzzing. I felt ten feet tall, and I’d won the free-kick late on in the game, making the most of a shove from the defender. Becks had probably had five or six free-kicks in that game, and they’d gone all over the place; he’d hit the wall, he’d hit Row Z, so when we got the last one I actually said to him ‘Becks, I’ll have this one. He just said ‘Go away, Ted. You can’t even reach from here.’ He had a point. I’d scored the odd free-kick in my career but I saw Becks on a daily basis practicing so I knew he was better. If you had to put money on someone putting the ball in the top corner in the last minute of a game, you’d put it on him. He told me to go away in the most polite way he could think of at the time, and ended up scoring. That’s what top players are all about.”
