David Beckham to Salford City: Gary and Phil Neville excited to welcome Class of 92 member
David Beckham’s imminent arrival as co-owner at Salford City signalled another the start of another exciting chapter in the National League side’s history.
It was announced on Wednesday that, subject to FA approval, global superstar Beckham will be joining the Class of 92 in investing 10% into the side, with Peter Lim remaining the single largest shareholder with 40%.
Gary Neville, Phil Neville, Ryan Giggs, Nicky Butt and Paul Scholes are existing shareholders with 10% each and they were excited to unveil another childhood friend to the project.
Speaking exclusively to Sporting Life, Phil Neville hailed it a ‘massive day for the football club’.
The England Women’s manager said: "Throughout the last four-and-a-half to five years we have always wanted to take the club forward and to keep it progressing forward and it has gone really quick, because of that we have had a lot of success.
"David joining is a signal of our intent, in terms of continuing to go forward and from a personal point of view, he is our friend. We've known him since we were 14 and have shared great times together, it is great we can continue that journey as a group of lads who grew up loving football, in the Salford area, that can keep giving back to an area that has given us so much.
"It starts with friendship, we didn’t get into it for fame or a PR exercise, we got into it because we wanted to do something together as a group of friends that had achieved so much and remained close throughout our lives. I know David’s career took him to all parts of the world, I was at Everton, Nicky was at Newcastle, playing in Hong Kong and we all retained that friendship and this is what it’s all about, togetherness of the whole football club summed up in our friendship.
"He was enthusiastic, keen and the one who made the decision because he is a busy man and for the last five years – like he said in the introduction video – because of the Miami club he had to focus solely on that, just like me now with the England Women’s national team, but this was the perfect moment for him to come in as one of the owners and he can continue with the club going forward.
"He is an owner, has great businesses, played at Real Madrid, AC Milan, LA Galaxy, Manchester United, he’s got so much experience to give and is someone who will add massive amounts of information and experience to what is a great football club.
"It’s just great he can now come on board with us and continue the good times together."
The Class of 92 arrived at the Moor Lane club in 2014 and have been promoted in three of the last four seasons.
Managed by former Scunthorpe and Fleetwood boss Graham Alexander (above), they are currently one step away from the Sky Bet EFL and are well within a chance of playing League Two football next term.
They are currently third in the National League, one point behind leaders Leyton Orient and evens with Sky Bet for promotion in May.
Beckham spoke fondly of Salford after moving there at the age of 14 and says he is ‘excited to be spending more time’ there again.
Gary Neville told Sporting Life how Lim, as well as the Class of 92, played an instrumental role in Beckham’s introduction to Salford City.
The Sky Sports pundit said: "Peter was huge in bringing him in, David wouldn’t have come in unless he had a relationship with the whole of the shareholding and all of the individuals. He’s grown very close to Peter Lim over the last four or five years which is really important in terms of the ownership structure and trust we build together.
"We are aligned in what we are trying to achieve, we obviously know each other inside out historically, so it’s a good thing.
"I think we all bring different things (in terms of qualities, to the table)," he continued.
"If we want someone to calm us down we speak to Ryan (Giggs) or Paul (Scholes), if we want someone to talk about different aspects you might speak to Nicky (Butt) and Phil (Neville), they’ve all got different experiences and knowledge of different aspects of the game.
"David has got a varied knowledge of the game to ourselves, we all tap into each other’s knowledge and speak to each other.
"It’s particularly good for the management team – Chris (Casper) the sporting director, Graham (Alexander) as the manager, they do want that little bit of experience for certain things. If they want to speak about how difficult it is in management, come speak to me! If they want to speak of different aspects of coaching they can go tap into different owners.
"It strengthens our ownership base and knowledge, we’re only out of football five or six years, but we are building up our knowledge all the time."
WATCH: Class of '92 Premier League best XI
- Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Nicky Butt, Gary and Phil Neville debate their greatest ever Premier League players...
Salford City are delighted to announce that David Beckham has acquired shares in the club, subject to FA approval.#WeAreSalford 🦁🔴 pic.twitter.com/yA4ypdIPo5
— Salford City FC (@SalfordCityFC) January 23, 2019
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