The Sun-Herald

Fight Club: The Secret Life of David Beckham

Australian Andy Bernal was the man they tried to ban.

It's a long story, suitable for a movie if any Hollywood executives are reading, but one that David Beckham, who arrives in Sydney this weekend, will know parts of - intimately.

Bernal is a former Socceroo who played for Sydney Olympic in the old NSL, Reading and Ipswich Town in England, as well as modest stints in Spain with Sporting Gijon and Jerez.

In 2003, when Beckham first joined Real Madrid, Bernal was hired by international management company SFX to be Beckham's personal assistant, go-fer, all-round can-do man.

You can read part of the bizarre true story, which involves spies, Fidel Castro (really) and bikini-clad assistants, here.

The adventure ended, in part, when Beckham decided against renewing his management agreement with SFX and instead took up with his wife's representatives, the omnipresent 19 Entertainment.

Here is 19's information-free website here.

But there's some more detail here.

After Bernal was pulled from his job in Madrid, he recalls, sitting in the London office of SFX and was asked to sign a confidentiality agreement to cover his time with Beckham.

The price? The princely sum of £1.

SFX wanted to ban Bernal from talking about his experiences with one of the world's biggest celebrities as well as his intimate dealings with SFX's business practices. They needn't have bothered.

The "offer" was - laughingly - made retrospectively. SFX had sent Bernal to Madrid without a contract, agreement, or anything written even on the back of a beer coaster about his actual job with Beckham.

It was truly make it up as you go along.

Bernal declined the invitation to sign away his right to speak. But Dave, if you're reading this, you need not panic.

Bernal also declined invitations from several UK tabloids to talk about his time with Beckham, the infamous Rebecca Loos, and wife Posh Spice.

Even when he found reporters going through the garbage of his sister's house, he turned down considerable amounts of cash.

So the details of Beckham's time in Madrid remain pretty much secret.

Yeah, there were parties at Ronaldo's house. Sure, there were supermodels. And there was that pesky Rebecca Loos business.

There is also Beckham's obsessive-compulsive desire to line up his sneakers neatly and his struggles to wear a pair of undies more than once.

But we all have our quirks and Beckham's show that, deep down is he is just the rest of us (his wife, we're not so sure about).

One of the last conversations Bernal had with Beckham was in a Madrid hotel when Posh told Bernal: "Andy, we all have mortgages to pay. We've all got to do what we've all got to do."

It was a revealing comment.

Bernal won't be meeting with Beckham when the Los Angeles Galaxy circus set up their tent in Sydney. Football is a transient business and best of friends, colleagues, teammates, coaches, come and go.

Just ask Frank Yallop, Galaxy's former coach and a former teammate of Bernal's at Ipswich.

Yallop has been made surplus to requirements at Galaxy and left the club for the relative calm of MLS side San Jose.

Bernal now spends time between Canberra and Sydney. He's involved in a project with several former Socceroos - and international heavyweights - in the design for a revolutionary new boot.

The boot invention is another thing Bernal won't talk about, comparing it to Fight Club.

The first rule of Fight Club, you might remember, is you don't talk about Fight Club.

The second rule of Fight Club?

Beckham will be pleased to learn that, too, is you don't talk about Fight Club.