David Beckham went through his fair share of hairstyles in his playing career but Alex Ferguson put the kibosh on one in particular.
When Beckham showed up with his hair shaved into a mohawk ahead of Manchester United’s Charity Shield clash with Chelsea in 2000, he was told that he wouldn’t be allowed to play with that hairstyle.
Alex Ferguson definitely fell into the no-nonsense category of managers and he let Beckham know that he wasn’t a fan of his new haircut in no uncertain terms.
“I walked in the changing room and he hadn’t seen it because I was too scared to even show him,” Beckham told Otro.
“I’d gone into training the day before with a beanie on, trained in a beanie, gone back, walked in the hotel, had a beanie on, had dinner, beanie on, breakfast beanie on, bus on way to stadium – beanie.
“Then as I got ready for the game I took it off, he said ‘go and shave it off’.
“I giggled and he was like ‘no, I’m serious. Go and shave it off’. So I had to find a pair of clippers and I shaved it off in Wembley Stadium. Manager always rules.”
United fell to a 2-0 defeat to Chelsea on that afternoon and Beckham’s mohawk did not reappear until the end of the 2000/01 season, when he joined up with the England camp.
Sven-Göran Eriksson clearly wasn’t as strict as Fergie when it came to Beckham’s haircuts…
