BBC World Cup Football Build up Features David Beckham's Travels in Brazil
David Beckham has stepped into the shoes of David Attenborough and Michael Palin in his latest career move as a swashbuckling explorer of the world after hanging up his own famous boots last year.
After a glittering career in football which saw him play at illustrious clubs such as Manchester United, Real Madrid and AC Milan, Beckham has decided to travel through the World Cup's host nation, Brazil, as part of the TV build up to the biggest sporting event on earth.
The BBC funded documentary sees Beckham and two friends travel from Rio De Janeiro into the heart of the Amazon rainforest via motorbike, canoe and aeroplane. However, not everything was plain sailing for the global superstar.
While meeting the world's press before the launch of his first ever travel documentary entitled ‘David Beckham: Into The Unknown', Beckham divulges about his encounter with a snake and a frog - the latter he found on-top of his tent during the adventure that had Becks shaken - all of which left Michael Palin brandishing the ex-England captain a ‘wimp'.
Beckham said: "I wish the snake had been bigger. It was bigger than it looks on TV.
"I am not a big frog fan. It was bright orange and I was told it was pretty dangerous. I was a little bit nervous about that."
Aside from Beckham's ranidaphobia (fear of frogs), he is also filmed receiving advice from his wife, Victoria, (before his ribbitting adventure) on his famous locks and the very real dangers posed by Brazil's tropical climate.
She asks him: "What are you going to do with your hair, with all that humidity?"
Beckham capably replies: "I am going to wear a hat."
During the press launch, the football icon also explained that he decided to risk life and limp hair for the opportunity to experience the unknown.
Beckham said: "The fact is, for the last 22 years, my every day has been on a schedule and the fact that I woke up in Rio and we said, 'Let's go to the favelas', and we can have lunch when we want and have dinner when we want and kind of talk about what we wanted to and to meet people that I've never met before - that was refreshing.''
Golden Balls also wanted to interact with people whom had no idea who he was or what he did. These people he found in the Yanomami tribe of the Amazon.
Beckham said: "And then obviously as we went along the trip I was being less recognised and less recognised and by the end of the trip when we were with the tribe - they didn't know who I was, they didn't know what football was, and it was incredible."
He relived that last moment: "One of the tribesman asked me 'Where do you live? What do you do? What's your forest like?'"
"I told him I was a soccer player, and he said, 'What's that?'
"That's the first time I've had to explain what to soccer is to anybody... besides Victoria."
Beckham's Brazilian odyssey has left no sour taste however; instead he stated that he would partake in another adventure in a far flung land "without a doubt".
So maybe we'll be seeing Beckham grace our screens again in the shape of our other national treasures: Attenborough and Palin - inspiring generations to visit countries and places all over our globe. If he does decide to take to the road again, let's hope he's adequately insured in case he runs into another angry amphibian. The medical bills alone could leave him hopping mad!
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