David Beckham reveals Sir Alex Ferguson 'makes me nervous', but former Man Utd manager doen't have same effect on his son Brooklyn

The former England captain will appear on screen this Christmas in David Beckham: For The Love Of The Game

David Beckham at Old Trafford for the UNICEF charity match (GETTY IMAGES)

It's now 12 years since he left Manchester United and a couple since Sir Alex Ferguson retired, but David Beckham admits he's still petrified by his former manager.

The pair were brought together for an all-star UNICEF fund-raising match at Old Trafford last month, the last of seven games that Beckham played on seven continents in the space of just nine days.

David Beckham: For The Love Of The Game, which will be aired on the BBC over Christmas, documents the trip that sees the former England captain go from Papua New Guinea to Nepal, Djibouti to Beunos Aires and Antarctica to Miami before ending in Manchester. In it Beckham is filmed chatting with Ferguson at Old Trafford and the nervousness he still feels towards the man he continues to refer to as 'The Boss' is clear, with the former Manchester United player admitting after watching the film back: "I look really scared".

"He does make me nervous. It's respect with the manager and it always has been," Beckham said in a Q+A session.

He continued: "Even recently I was at an event where he was sat on the table behind me and I had a glass of wine. Notoriously we would never drink in front of the manager, even when he walked into the room when we had just won the European Cup (in 1999) you would see me, Scholesy, Butty, Giggsy, all move our drinks under the table. So it was the same at the event the other day. He was sat on the table behind me and I was putting my glass of wine directly in front of me so he wouldn't see. He has that effect over us."

David Beckham and Alex Ferguson in 1999 (GETTY IMAGES)

However, it doesn't appear as though Ferguson has quite the same effect on the next generation of Beckhams. David's son Brooklyn played in the charity match at Old Trafford and was with the rest of the players in the changing rooms. Beckham told how his 16-year-old son broke a very strict rule.

"We were sat there in the changing room and I had gone out to get my boots. I walked back into the changing room and Brooklyn was on his phone and the manager was only two seats away from him. In football that's a no-no, you would get fined a weeks wages for that.

"So I walked over to Brooklyn and said 'Get off the phone'. But then Brooklyn said: 'It's mum though'."

Explaining what he hopes to achieve through his gruelling journey, Beckham said: "I have seen the transformational effect that sport and in particular football has on people's lives. This epic journey will allow me to show the positive side of the game I love and shine a light on the passion and selflessness of people that play this sport as a force for good."

David Beckham: For The Love Of The Game will air on BBC One on Tuesday December 29 at 9pm.