David Beckham: I was bullied at school

All you nerdy schoolboys out there - cheer up! Football demigod David Beckham may be the coolest dude on the planet now, but he was bullied too as a kid.

With nothing but football on his mind, junior Beckham stuck out like a sore thumb among his classmates. 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.

He admits:

When I was 16 I had temptations. 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 sissy - and gave him some stick...but he ignored them. Beckham tells the Guardian:

There was a bullying side to starting sport so young. 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?'

Source: Now