01 Bend it Like Beckham

Ex­tract from Chap­ter 1 from Bend it Like Be­ck­ham



„Old Traf­ford. Man­ches­ter United v. An­der­lecht. The crowd a sea of red and white. They’re on edge, wai­ting for the all-​important goal.

‘But there’s a big ques­ti­on mark han­ging over Man­ches­ter United,’ John Mot­son says breath­less­ly. ‘Where’s the goal going to come from? Will it be Scho­les? Could it be Ryan Giggs? Or will David Be­ck­ham hims­elf break th­rough?’

The crowd lean for­ward, ur­ging the play­ers on. The at­mo­s­phe­re is elec­tric.

‘Oh, and there’s the ball Be­ck­ham wan­ted! Ple­nty of play­ers in the midd­le, and Bham­ra’s ma­king ground as well. It’s a de­cent cross, and there’s Bham­ra. That’s a fine hea­der – AND SHE SCO­RES!’

The crowd go wild.

‘And it’s a goal by Jess Bham­ra! A su­perb hea­der, be­a­ting the de­fen­der and plan­ting the ball just out of reach past the goal­kee­per. Jess Bham­ra makes a name for hers­elf at Old Traf­ford! Have we dis­co­ver­ed a new star here, Gary?’

Back in the TV stu­di­os, Gary Li­ne­ker turns to Alan Han­sen and John Bar­nes. They all look well im­pres­sed.

‘Good ques­ti­on, Motty,’ says Gary, tur­ning to the panel. ‘Could Jess Bham­ra be the ans­wer to Eng­land’s pray­ers, Alan?’

Alan rai­ses his eye­brows. ‘There’s no deny­ing the ta­lent there […].

A se­cond later, my be­d­room door cras­hed open.

‘Jes­min­der, are you lis­te­ning to me?’ Mum de­man­ded.

Why did she al­ways have to in­ter­rupt at the best bits? Gary was about to in­ter­view Sven-​Goran Eriks­son, who „was con­side­ring cal­ling me up for the next Eng­land match.

‘Jes­min­der, have you gone mad?’ Mum poin­ted at the TV and gla­red at me. Her spe­cial Lis­ten to me, I’m your mo­ther and I know best glare. ‘Foot­ball shoot­ball! It’s your sis­ter’s en­ga­ge­ment party to­mor­row, and you’re sit­ting here wat­ching that skin­head boy.’

She grab­bed the re­mo­te con­trol from me, and snap­ped the TV off. I gro­aned.

‘Oh, Mum, it’s Be­ck­ham’s cor­ner.’

Mum took no noti­ce. She never does.“