In a nostalgic nod to the past, David Beckham shared fond recollections of his time in Salford. This came as he and Gary Neville, a fellow ex-Manchester United star, unveiled the new home kit for their club’s 2026-27 season, along with a redesigned badge.
Beckham and Neville, who have long been tight-knit friends and celebrated football figures, assumed full control of Salford City in 2025. They had previously been co-owners with fellow Class of ’92 alumni.
Now solely steering the club, the Manchester United icons have swiftly restored its original orange colors, moving away from red. They introduced a revamped club crest in an emotional video announcement that resonated with fans.
In a playful exchange, Neville teased Beckham, recalling, ‘You brought the Spice Girls to Salford. Do you remember that after party?’ Their camaraderie was evident in the banter.
Beckham smiled as he remembered the gathering at their four-bedroom home on Hazelhurst Road. It was in that house where he and his wife, Victoria, began their journey as a married couple back in the 1990s.
Gary Neville and David Beckham have revealed their new look for Salford City’s home kit
During the launch video, Beckham reminisced about the early days of his marriage to Victoria (pictured in 1998)
Neville shared that Salford always made him ‘think of Nobby Styles, in the B team at Littleton Road and just Nobby being in those changing rooms and having a go at us and saying, “Come on, lads, get your tackles in.” And stuff like that.’
‘When you have someone like Nobby Styles training you, it’s special,’ Beckham added. ‘And that’s why when we went back recently and we walked out onto Littleton Road, it’s my first time I’ve been there for 25, 30 years for a long time.
‘And I had to walk off on my own because I got emotional. You know, the fact that we have this training ground for Salford now and we’re going to renovate it. We’re going to turn it into something.
‘But it doesn’t need much because you walk in there and it just reminds you of like the history and the past that we had there.’
Stressing that the people of Salford are ‘humble and tough and caring’, Beckham added that they had been inspired by them to bring back the orange and black colours.
‘All I remember is that Salford City black and orange banner,’ he continued. ‘So, when obviously you guys took over and all of a sudden it was red, I was like, “the first thing we have to do is take it back.”‘
Beckham revealed that he plans to ‘own’ the colour orange in club football with Salford City, just as his MLS side Inter Miami have seen him ‘own’ the colour of their memorable pink kit.
Beckham and Neville have also reworked the lion badge, using a more historic style of graphic and adding the Lancastrian red rose.
‘When you look at the history of Salford, you know, the lion is so prominent, but then we wanted to introduce the rose, you know, because the Salford Lads Club is such a an important institution in in Salford. So, it means something to the people and the community.’
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The former Man United team-mates jettisoned the red kit favoured by the Class of ’92 owners
Beckham admitted that he had been working on the kit design and finding the perfect orange for nearly seven months
‘And then the circles here, you know, the famous dirty old town, the gas work, they’re sort of to symbolise the shape of the gas works,’ Neville added.
‘But that is part of what we wanted to create. It’s a real nod to the history of Salford,’ Beckham, who has been working on the design and the colour of the orange used on the shirts for seven months, continued.
Beckham added that the only resistance they had had to the wholesale changes came from ‘one or two lads who had the logo tattooed’ – with the owners vowing to pay for the fans’ tattoo removal should they wish.
As excited as Beckham and Neville are about their new kit, there may be residual disappointment that their club will have to wear them to play in League Two, after missing out on a spot in League One in heartbreaking fashion three months ago.
Salford City lost 3-0 to Notts County in the scorching Wembley heat of their play-off final, after missing out on automatic promotion by a solitary point on the final day of the season.