Prime Video’s new docuseries 99 features David Beckham looking back at the aftermath of his World Cup red card.
David Beckham spoke candidly about the summer of 1998 in the new Prime Video documentary 99, which follows Manchester United’s treble-winning season.
That summer, he was public enemy number one in England following his dramatic sending-off at the World Cup.
England were dumped out of the tournament by Argentina after a penalty shootout in the first knockout round.
With the score level at 2-2, Beckham kicked out at Argentina captain Diego Simeone, earning a red card. In the opening moments of 99, he explained how hard that summer was to take.
The first episode of 99 begins with Manchester United in a state of flux, still bruised from losing out to Arsenal for the Premier League title in 1998.
But when the players returned to start training for the 1998-99 season, Beckham’s name was at the centre of a tabloid maelstrom.
“The biggest problem in that pre-season was that all the attention was on Becks,” said teammate Gary Neville in the doc.
Beckham then took over the story and said: “That summer after the World Cup was the toughest moment of my career. But I suppose the thing that I was worried most about was, could I continue to play for Man United?”
The 49-year-old star explained that manager Sir Alex Ferguson played a huge role in turning things around for Beckham and ensuring he was ready for the new season.
Beckham said: “The manager, he was the first person to call me after I’d been sent off. He just said: ‘Son, it’s going to be tough, but you get back to The Cliff training ground and don’t worry about anything else’.”
Fortunately, Beckham felt far more confident when he helped Manchester United to lift the Premier League trophy, providing six goals and 12 assists across the season. “It was that feeling of this is where I wanna be. This is my club. This is my team,” he said of the victory.
Of course, things got even better when Beckham also played a part in winning the FA Cup and Champions League for the historic treble, which wasn’t matched until Manchester City pulled off the feat in 2023. “I want that feeling again”, said Beckham as he reflected on that win. “I will never have that feeling again.”
He added: “I don’t think it will ever be done the way we did it. Three minutes to go in the Champions League final to do the treble. It was the dream.”
99 features brand new interviews with the biggest stars of that iconic season, including Ryan Giggs, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, and Gary Neville. The docuseries delves into the tensions between members of the squad, including a fight that broke out in the changing room between captain Roy Keane and striker Teddy Sheringham.
But the focus is mainly on the raucous celebrations that saw Sir Alex Ferguson cement himself as arguably Man United’s greatest manager, winning the Champions League on what would have been the 90th birthday of another United legend: Sir Matt Busby.
