David Beckham has opened up about seeking guidance from his former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson on how to make his MLS club Inter Miami a success.
As president and co-owner of the team, which includes stars like Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez, Beckham, 49, turned to Ferguson, 82, for advice on building a winning team.
“I went to him once and said to him ‘I’m starting this team, how would you run it? How would you do it? Your philosophy, I want to learn from you’,” Beckham shared. “He sat me down for a couple of hours and he told me what I should do, what players I should be looking for and how I should run the academy.
“That’s really what I’ve tried to do. I also learnt from people like Florentino Perez. You know, with Florentino, he has this crazy vision of always bringing the greatest players to the club and building this unbelievable stadium. And with what the boss told me, the boss was like ‘okay, the academy is really important’.”
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Beckham also highlighted the importance of academies in the league’s future, and detailed a conversation he had with the commissioner at the time. “When I first moved to Los Angeles, I turned around to the commissioner of the league and said ‘how many academies are in the league? ‘ He said, none. And I was like, how is that possible? Where do the players come from? He said ‘well, there just isn’t’.”
“I said ‘okay, for longevity and the future of this league and the future of this game in this country, academy systems are important’. I was brought up in one, you know how important academy systems are, you have to have one in each of the clubs in the MLS,” he emphasized.
He proudly noted that every MLS club now boasts an academy system, which is churning out young talent: “Now, every one of the clubs in the MLS has that academy system and all of these young players that are coming through, they’re all coming through this academy system.”
Beckham highlighted the broader impact, saying, “That’s not just good for the game. It’s good for every MLS club, but it’s good for the future of the country in America. To have all of these players coming through, from local areas, is such an important part of it.”
David Beckham, owner of Inter Miami, went to Sir Alex Ferguson for advice (
Ira L. Black)
Beckham continued to express his pride in Inter Miami’s blend of seasoned stars and homegrown talent: “As much as I love seeing the players and the team that we’ve created at Miami, you know, obviously, you’ve got Leo [Messi], you’ve got Sergio Busquets, you’ve got Jordi Alba, you’ve got Luis Suarez.”
The sight of a young academy product like Benjamin Krumashi playing alongside these legends fills him with pride: “But when I see them passing around the pitch, and all of a sudden, they pass to Benjamin Krumashi, who has come through our academy from a young kid, and he’s now playing with these players.”
He reiterated, “That makes me proud. That makes me proud. And it’s such an important part of the future of the game there.”
Reflecting on his post-playing career ambitions, Beckham shared that coaching never appealed to him: “I never had aspirations of being a coach or a manager. I just didn’t think I’d be any good at that. But I wanted to own a club. I knew I’d think I could be good at that.”
Beckham has lifted the lid on what tempted Messi to make the move to Miami (
Getty Images)
He concluded by recalling the opportunity to own a team that came with his move to America and his time with LA Galaxy: “Obviously, when I moved to America and I had the opportunity to own a team at the end of my time at LA Galaxy, I snapped it up because I knew that’s what I wanted to put in the contract and they gave me it.”
Reflecting on the monumental deal that saw eight-time Ballon d’Or winner Messi move from Paris St Germain to Inter Miami last year, Beckham expressed his delight. “When you bring someone like Leo to America, I always said that it was our gift,” Beckham shared.
“As an ownership group and as a person who owns the club, I wanted to do something for the game. But I also wanted to do something for America, because they’ve given me so much over the years and they’ve given me so much love, that to bring Leo to inspire the next generation of players in America, that’s what we wanted to do.”
He added, “With Leo, we knew what we were bringing and I knew that he was going to be successful on the field, but I also knew he was going to help our club off the field.”
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