Both Teddy Sheringham’s equaliser and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s famous, last-gasp winner came from Beckham’s late corners, and the former United midfielder has opened up on his memory of the final.

When the creators of the ‘Beckham’ documentary, which was unveiled on Netflix on Wednesday October 4, asked him what he was thinking as he stepped up to take the crucial corners, he replied:

‘I just thought do what I did when I was a kid, when my dad used to make me do corner after corner after corner and put it in the exact spot he wanted it. If I didn’t he’d kill me. 

‘He told me that moments like corners at the end of a match that can create history.’

With United 1-0 behind in the first minute of added time, Beckham kept his composure and fired a dangerous cross into the penalty area, drawing several defenders and allowing his team-mates to find Sheringham open in the six-yard box for a tap-in.Two minutes later from the same corner, Beckham delivered another pinpoint cross towards Sheringham, whose glancing header found Solskjaer at the back post for the famous winner.

Manchester United were second best throughout the first half as Bayern Munich took an early lead in the sixth minute through Mario Basler.

Beckham, who had experienced an extremely challenging season in the wake of England’s 1998 World Cup exit, helped the Red Devils find a foothold in the game with his range of passing in the middle of the park.

Gary Neville claims Beckham ‘became a leader’ for the first time during their triumphant European Cup final, with Beckham going on to captain both Manchester United and England.

‘I think that game was the point where he became a leader,’ he said during the documentary. ‘And I thought, “s***, you’re inspiring me”.’  Sir Alex Ferguson, whom Beckham ‘looked up to as a father figure’, urged that the midfielder’s grit and determination was crucial in United getting back into the game.

He said: ‘That night, there was something inside David where he went, “I’m not going to let this happen”.  ‘It was a personal thing he had in him. A stubbornness and determination.’

Beckham also opens up on the relationship he had with his father Ted, who always dreamed of his son playing for Manchester United.

His father admitted to having up to 1,400 videos of Beckham playing when he was a child, having sent tapes off to football clubs in the hope of landing his son an opportunity.

The former footballer also revealed how his father used to be very tough on him as a child and only had the highest expectations of him on the pitch. 

Beckham claims his father’s harshness towards him as a child helped him to better deal with the extreme abuse and backlash he received from fans after being sent off in England’s bitter World Cup defeat by Argentina in 1998.

‘I could handle the abuse from the fans because of the way my dad had been with me,’ he said.  ‘I used to hear my mum turn to my dad and say: “Stop talking the way you’re talking to him. Stop shouting at him. Stop telling him off. He did well today.” And dad would be like, “He did alright”.’ 

During the documentary, his father said: ‘Yes, I was hard. But it turned out, I think, to be the right thing. ‘That year made my son grow up into a man.’

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Source: Los Angeles Times1