David Beckham says ‘friends didn’t want to be near me’ after World Cup red card

David Beckham has admitted his red card, which led to England crashing out of the 1998 World Cup, changed how his friends treated him.

The superstar footballer shared “it was a tough moment” that turned him into a “cold person” for a while when loved ones didn’t want to be near him because of abuse aimed at him by the public.

“There’s nothing that I regret in my career,” admitted the 48-year-old. 

“I still think about that incident most weeks. It still affects me but I think it happened for a reason.

“It is a tough moment in my life. It was a tough moment for my family.

“I’m going to try not to get emotional . . . but I was young and I made a mistake. 

“I did something stupid and silly and I honestly suffered for that.

“It turned me into a little bit of a cold person in certain situations. I couldn’t drive or walk in London,” he added while talking at the Jewish Synagogue in St Johns Wood, London.

David elaborated: ”I couldn’t go to restaurants. I couldn’t go to bars. Friends didn’t want to walk with me because they knew I was getting abused.

“If I stopped at traffic lights, people would hit the window or spit at it, and these things happened for quite a few years.

“It was a difficult moment and I think that’s what made me as a person, as a player.”

David became public enemy No.1 overnight when The Three Lions were dumped out of the tournament on the same night Beckham saw red for kicking out at Diego Simeone.

The former Manchester United star, who was brutally vilified by fans for months afterwards, told his old United teammate Gary Neville that he was left absolutely distraught by the incident. 

Speaking on The Overlap last year, David said: “I remember how tough it was. It was a tough tournament to start off with, it got better then it got really bad.

“That was a tough start [not getting picked for the first two games], what happened after that it was tough all round. I never felt I was frustrated playing in those games.

“I don’t remember going on that pitch wanting to prove a point because I had been left out of other games. It was just a moment that happened where I reacted – it was a moment of madness, really.

“When I look back on my career and talk about regrets, I wish that never happened. But on the flip side, if it didn’t happen, I might not have had the career that I had.”