As a teenage Manchester United trainee, David Beckham revelled in his weekly £120 pay packet and the success with the ladies that a fledgling football contract brought. Now letters written by the 16-year-old Beckham to a friend about his new lifestyle are up for auction.

Fourteen years on, the England captain is possibly the best known sportsman on the planet and earns about £100,000 a week from his contract with Real Madrid - not to mention his multi-million-pound sponsorship deals.

But it was not always obvious that the boy from Leytonstone would end up with a pop star wife, millions in the bank and fans all over the world.

He wrote to his friend Lee in the summer of 1991 of "eight miles sprinting every day" during preseason training, which he found "quite hard". His soccer progress was rapid - and handy for attracting the girls. "I've been playing in the A team. I've been doing really well with my football as well as with girls, because we are United players they all want to go with us.

"I got my first wage packet and a bonus which come to £120 so that went into the bank and I have got about £250 in there now." He enclosed his own drawing of a greyhound at Walthamstow Stadium.

The letters and drawing, being sold at Bonhams in Chester next month, are expected to fetch between £1,000 and £1,500.