Becks: Girls all want me

Being a footballer has given David Beckham fame and fortune - but what really mattered to him in the early days was the effect it had on women.

A 16-year-old Beckham revelled in the success he had with the opposite sex after signing with Manchester United.

He boasted to his friend in a letter: 'I've been playing in the A-team, which is brilliant. I've been doing really well with my football as well as with girls - because we are United players they all want to go with us.'

This and another letter penned by the footballer as a trainee in 1991, and one of his sketches, fetched more than £1,000 in a sporting memorabilia auction at Bonhams in Chester yesterday.

The letters were written to a friend, Lee, and the picture is a of a greyhound called Rosie Red on a race track.

The England captain may now earn about £100,000 a week at Real Madrid - not to mention his multi-million-pound endorsements - but money was not always so plentiful.

He wrote: 'I got my first wage packet the other day and a bonus which came to £120 so that went into the bank and I have got about £250 in there now.'