Gary Neville has revealed why he disliked rooming with fellow Manchester United teammate David Beckham during their time playing for the club, according to a report in the Metro.
Neville and Beckham were part of Sir Alex Ferguson’s treble-winning squad and played together for the club in the ’90s and early 2000s before Beckham’s blockbuster move to Real Madrid.
Players were made to room with each other in the early ’90s and Neville has now revealed how rooming with David Beckham just did not work out well for both players.
Speaking about his experiences rooming with David Beckham, as quoted in the Metro, Neville said:
“I roomed with David Beckham for about six months and then the whole rooming with players completely stopped because everybody went into their own individual rooms.”
“I think they worked out that players weren’t compatible with each other and that each went to bed at different times.”
“I had two big problems with Becks (well, he had with me!).”
“I used to go to bed at 9pm and wake up at 5am, he would stay up until 11pm and want to wake up at 8am,”
“So essentially he was keeping me up from 9 until 11 and then I was getting him up at 5 in the morning, so it just wasn’t working at all.”
“Secondly, he is the cleanest person. He gets into his room, he lights candles, he puts pictures up – everything has to be absolutely perfect, it’s been the same since he was 18.”
“I just throw everything everywhere, so it just did not work at all. I’m always talking, always arguing and he was the complete opposite of that.”
“He would listen to music, he would want peace, he would want to be chilled and it’s just the complete opposite end of the spectrum of where I was at.”
Neville’s account of rooming with his teammate and icon David Beckham sheds some light on humbler times before footballers were allotted their own rooms and were paid extravagantly.
It also gives some insight into the life of footballers away from the pitch and behind the scenes in the early ’90s.
Neville continued to play for Manchester United in a 19-year stint until he hung up his boots, while Beckham made moves first to Real Madrid and then to LA Galaxy, AC Milan and Paris Saint-Germain before he retired from the game.