David Beckham has dismissed a German newspaper's vicious attack on his family as "sad."
The England football captain furiously hit back at the personal onslaught in the mass-circulated paper Bild, describing it as a lowly attempt to shake his team's morale.
He said, "When it comes to my family that is one thing I won't accept and never will. I find it sad that one person drops to the level of criticizing my family, but it is one sad person thinking of what they can do to put me off my next game."
The article attacked his sister Joanna for being "fat," joked that his sons Romeo and Brooklyn were "dwarves" and described his mother Sandra as having the smile of a "peasant."
The journalist responsible for the insults, sports writer Tobias Holtkamp, has attempted to excuse the article as a bit of harmless fun.
He said, "It was meant to be funny and should not have been taken so serious(ly). The English translation makes it sound much worse than I intended."
David - who is married to former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham - was careful to make it clear his quarrel was with the journalist who wrote the piece, not the people of Germany.
He added, "I've always good a great relationship with the German public. It's never been a problem. This is not about my anger with the German people - it is with one person."
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