David Beckham would pull on the captain’s armband 59 times for England, leading the Three Lions at three major tournaments.
Only four players – Billy Wright, Bobby Moore, Harry Kane and Bryan Robson – have led England’s men side out more times than the former Manchester United man, who was first given the honour by caretaker boss Peter Taylor in a November 2000 friendly against Italy.
Beckham was the kind of captain that liked to lead by example, with his iconic performance against Greece in England’s final qualifier for the 2002 World Cup a prime example of this.
Heskey on Beckham’s leadership style
After covering every blade of grass at Old Trafford, his 93rd-minute free-kick sealed Sven-Goran Eriksson’s side’s place at the tournament in Japan and South Korea.
Former striker Emile Heskey was part of the England XI that day and was just as impressed as everyone else was with what he saw.
“He was outstanding that afternoon, he controlled everything from the right wing,” Heskey recalls to FourFourTwo. “As captain, he wasn’t the loudest, he didn’t bark stuff at you, but you’d watch him and think, ‘I need to work harder’.
“His energy in that Greece game was ridiculous, then to get the goal that took us through, only he could do that.
He’d already had three or four free-kicks in that match, but we’d all seen him score those every day in training. Top corner, bang. It was only a matter of time before one went in.”
Beckham’s equaliser meant that England overhauled Germany at the top of Group 9, meaning they avoided a two-legged playoff against Ukraine.
Beckham’s performance that day remains one of the most iconic outings by an England player in recent memory, with FourFourTwo placing it at no.10 in a list of the greatest individual performances in the history of the game.
On a personal note for Beckham, the game also acted as redemption for the Three Lions skipper, who could finally put his red card in the 1998 World Cup defeat to Argentina behind him.
