‘I never socialised with David Beckham for good reason despite our wives being friends’ | Football | Sport

Michael Owen previously disclosed that he never developed  a close bond with David Beckham, despite the pair being England and Real Madrid colleagues. Beckham, 50, and Owen, 46, were two of the nation’s most exciting and commercially appealing footballers during their prime. Eleven years after Beckham made his senior debut at Manchester United, his celebrity status had propelled him to the Spanish giants in the summer of 2003.

Owen had similarly emerged at an early age, making an immediate impression for Liverpool and England and securing a transfer to Madrid twelve months later. Despite representing fierce adversaries in the Premier League, the duo would reunite for England commitments. Once they relocated to Los Blancos expectations were considerable that they would forge a strong friendship in the Spanish capital.

Nevertheless, Owen revealed shortly afterwards that the two scarcely communicated beyond football with the forward favouring a more understated lifestyle in Spain. Owen even suggested their families seldom socialised together with the pair’s lifestyles differing markedly from one another’s.

“As much as we ended up living close to David and Victoria Beckham and were two English families living abroad in the same city, there wasn’t much in the way of social life as far as them and us were concerned,” Owen wrote in his autobiography.

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“Given that both [Owen’s wife] Louise and [Bekham’s wife] Victoria were quite lonely and both looking after young kids, they’d occasionally see each other while we were training. That was the extent of the friendship, however. This perhaps wasn’t a surprise given that, by the time we found ourselves in Madrid together, David and I had even less in common than we ever had.

“I certainly didn’t like wearing trendy gear or mingling among socialite company. David and Victoria on the other hand, were both bona fide superstars in their own right. They were operating on a completely different stratosphere from a social perspective. I never once got the impression I was in the inner circle of David’s group of friends.”

Whilst provocative, these observations pale in comparison to the harshest criticism Owen has directed at Beckham through the years. The 1998 Ballon d’Or recipient held his former Madrid colleague responsible for England’s World Cup exit against Argentina that year, following Beckham’s notorious dismissal for lashing out at Diego Simeone.

“While it was clearly premeditated, it was immature and petulant more than it was violent. But for me, that almost makes it worse,” Owen penned in his book.

“All I can say is that, as I sit here now writing this book, knowing how fortunate a player is to participate in one World Cup, let alone multiple, I’d be dishonest if I didn’t admit that what David did that day let down every single member of that England team.

“Did he warrant the abuse he received afterwards? Absolutely not. What person needs to witness their effigy being burned? But David let us down, and I still harbour some resentment about it today.”

Owen played a single season at Real Madrid before making a less than successful return to the Premier League with Newcastle. He later played for Manchester United and Stoke before hanging up his boots in 2013.

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Beckham went on to ignite the Major League Soccer revolution by signing for LA Galaxy in 2007. He subsequently played for AC Milan and Paris Saint-Germain before retiring in the same year as Owen.