"I read Bobby Charlton's book that says I was offered a contract, and that the figures offered were very fair. At that moment, I hadn't been offered any new contract at Man United," he stated.

"Sky Sports were at one of our games, and I was stood next to Gary Neville and I'd heard rumours other teams were interested in me, but I never thought it would happen and I remember turning to Gary on the pitch and saying, 'They've had talks', because I'd heard Man United had had talks with Barcelona.

"Sky lip-read it wrong because they said I was saying, 'I've had talks'. I'd never spoken to anyone at that moment."

So was it all down to a simple miscommunication in that moment? Beckham went on to recall the moment he knew his time was up with the Red Devils.

"The only time I spoke to Real Madrid was after I phoned up [then Chief Executive] Peter Kenyon and said, 'Can I speak to the manager? I need to know, is this what the manager wants?'" recollected Beckham.

"And he said, 'Yeah, it's time for you to go', and I was like, 'OK', and that was the first day I spoke to Florentino Perez at Real Madrid."