Brooklyn Beckham’s former football coach at QPR says he ‘felt sorry’ for the 26-year-old during his time at the club’s academy and believes his ‘anxiety’ was clear to see.
Earlier this week, Brooklyn launched a scathing attack on his parents, Sir David and Victoria Beckham, via a lengthy statement on Instagram in which he claimed that he had been ‘controlled’ by them and accused the pair of ‘trying endlessly to ruin my relationship’ with his wife Nicola Peltz.
At the age of 14, Brooklyn looked destined to follow in his father’s footsteps as he joined QPR’s academy following trials with Chelsea, Manchester United and Fulham.
Less than a year later, Brooklyn moved to Arsenal but after the club opted not to offer a scholarship deal, he chose to pursue a career in photography instead.
Tony McCool, who coached Brooklyn at QPR, described the relationship between his parents as a ‘strange dynamic’ and believes the Beckham’s eldest son was in a ‘tough’ situation as a teenager.
‘Brooklyn Beckham getting piled on. But I felt sorry for the lad. I did see some bizarre carry on as his football coach at QPR and certainly seen the anxiety,’ McCool wrote in his post on LinkedIn.
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‘He might have got this situation wrong, I’m not on either side because I don’t know them and his parents were always polite to me. But I did witness myself a strange dynamic which is impossible for us to judge and predict how we would navigate it, both as parents and as a young person.
‘My short window into that life left me some funny stories, also some sad ones and I realised how tough it must have been for the lad. Yet I coached many lads of famous parents, mostly well-known footballers.
‘But this spell was on another serious level. It would make a good chapter in my book. What it did do was open my eyes. Being a super wealthy and famous doesn’t always lead to happiness.
‘It’s hard to “sympathise” or empathise because most of us will never know. But being flanked by permanent security at 14, plus the many other things I seen made me realise I shouldn’t judge because I haven’t walked a mile in them shoes, or his parents to be fair.
‘I am sure they will close ranks and resolve their differences. I hope so. (& David thanks for paying me back that £6).’
Brooklyn Beckham’s explosive statement in full
‘I have been silent for years and made every effort to keep these matters private. Unfortunately, my parents and their team have continued to go to the press, leaving me with no choice but to speak for myself and tell the truth about only some of the lies that have been printed.
‘I do not want to reconcile with my family. I’m not being controlled, I’m standing up for myself for the first time in my life.
‘For my entire life, my parents have controlled narratives in the press about our family. The performative social media posts, family events and inauthentic relationships have been a fixture of the life I was born into. Recently, I have seen with my own eyes the lengths that they’ll go through to place countless lies in the media, mostly at the expense of innocent people, to preserve their own facade. But I believe the truth always comes out.
‘My parents have been trying endlessly to ruin my relationship since before my wedding, and it hasn’t stopped. My mum cancelled making Nicola’s dress in the eleventh hour despite how excited she was to wear her design, forcing her to urgently find a new dress. Weeks before our big day, my parents repeatedly pressured and attempted to bribe me into signing away the rights to my name, which would have affected me, my wife, and our future children. They were adamant on me signing before my wedding date because then the terms of the deal would be initiated. My holdout affected the payday, and they have never treated me the same since.
‘During the wedding planning, my mum went so far as to call me “evil” because Nicola and I chose to include my Nanny Sandra, and Nicola’s Naunni at our table, because they both didn’t have their husbands. Both of our parents had their own tables equally adjacent to ours.
‘The night before our wedding, members of my family told me that Nicola was “not blood” and “not family”. Since the moment I started standing up for myself with my family, I’ve received endless attacks from my parents, both privately and publicly, that were sent to the press on their orders.
‘Even my brothers were sent to attack me on social media, before they ultimately blocked me out of nowhere this last Summer.
‘My mum hijacked my first dance with my wife, which had been planned weeks in advance to a romantic love song. In front of our 500 wedding guests, Marc Anthony called me to the stage, where in the schedule was planned to be my romantic dance with my wife but instead my mum was waiting to dance with me instead.
‘She danced very inappropriately on me in front of everyone, I’ve never felt more uncomfortable or humiliated in my entire life. We wanted to renew our vows so we could create new memories of our wedding day that bring us joy and happiness, not anxiety and embarrassment.
‘My wife has been consistently disrespected by my family, no matter how hard we’ve tried to come together as one. My mum has repeatedly invited women from my past into our lives in ways that were clearly intended to make us both uncomfortable.
‘Despite this, we still travelled to London for my dad’s birthday and were rejected for a week as we waited in our hotel room trying to plan quality time with him. He refused all of our attempts, unless it was at his big birthday party with a hundred guests and cameras at every corner.
‘When he finally agreed to see me, it was under the condition that Nicola wasn’t invited. It was a slap in the face. Later, when my family travelled to LA, they refused to see me at all.
‘My family values public promotion and endorsements above all else. Brand Beckham comes first. Family “love” is decided by how much you post on social media, or how quickly you drop everything to show up and pose for a family photo opp, even if it’s at the expense of our professional obligations. We’ve gone out of our way to show up and support at every fashion show, every party, and every press activity to show our “perfect family”. But the one time my wife asked for my mum’s support to save displaced dogs during the LA fires, my mum refused.
‘The narrative that my wife controls me is completely backwards, I have been controlled by my parents for most my life. I grew up with overwhelming anxiety. For the first time in my life since stepping away from my family, that anxiety has disappeared. I wake up every morning grateful for the life I chose, and have found peace and relief.
‘My wife and I do not want a life shaped by image, press or manipulation. All we want [is] peace, privacy, and happiness for us and our future family.’
Speaking about Brooklyn’s decision to quit football in an interview with ABC, David said: ”One of my boys turned around to me the other day and said, ‘Daddy, I’m not sure I want to play football all the time.
‘It broke my heart a little bit. He said, ‘Every time I step on to the field, I know people are saying, ‘This is David Beckham’s son’, and if I am not as good as you, then it is not good enough.
‘I said, ‘Okay, stop right there… you play because you want to play’. I don’t want them to have that pressure.
‘I want them to be happy. As long as they’re happy, that’s all I care about.’
In an interview with Variety several years later, Brooklyn opened up on the pressure of trying to become a professional footballer and his decision to leave the game.
‘My dad wasn’t sad, because he was like, I just want you to be happy. But of course I was sad. It was my whole life since I was literally two,’ Brooklyn said.
‘To try and live up to what my dad did in football, I was just like, that’s going to be a bit difficult.’
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