CityLife

He's back! The man who does smilebites, not soundbites

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IT was a homecoming for the golden boy forced to leave the Theatre of Dreams.

When David Beckham staged the first book signing in the UK for his autobiography My Side, the location was surely not accidental - WH Smith in the Trafford Centre, just a few dozen midfield dashes away from his old employer Manchester United.

Seven-year old Adam Croft summed up the mood of the expectant throng. "I want him to come back," said Adam, from Swinton, as he awaited a brief audience with his hero.

Adam could scarcely believe it when his mum had broken the news to him that Beckham was leaving Manchester United for Real Madrid.

"He loves David Beckham," said Mum Alison, aged 33. "He has David Beckham on his walls, on his tee shirts and he's even got his David Beckham socks on. He loves the number seven. He has inhalers and he has to have seven breaths."

At the front of the queue Ryan Galbraith, aged ten, from Salford, was not the only one to say: "I'm going to ask him if he ever had the chance would he go back to Manchester United."

For the full feature, read Tuesday's Manchester Evening News.