David Beckham thinks his wife Victoria Beckham is ''just as beautiful today'' as when they first met.

The 38-year-old star is grateful the Spice Girl has kept her good looks from their first meeting in 1997 when she attended a Manchester United game, but the retired soccer star feared he had blown his chance of dating the 39-year-old beauty because he was too shy to talk to her initially.

David - who married Victoria in July 1999 - said: ''I was playing with Manchester United against Chelsea in London, and she came down with my manager. I was very shy so I introduced myself and left.

''I kind of was disappointed that I didn't talk to her a bit more, but then the next week she came back for another game, then it was my chance and I got her number.

''Victoria's still just as beautiful today, I'm not sure that's the case with me!''

The couple have gone on to have four children - sons Brooklyn, 14, Romeo, 10, and Cruz, eight, as well as 22-month-old daughter Harper - and David insists discovering Victoria was pregnant for the first time was the best moment of his life.

Speaking to French news channel TF1, he added: ''Finding out that you're going to become a dad, it's the most amazing thing you can ever feel. Nothing gets better than that, to see something you've created as a couple.''

David experienced a hat-trick of special moments discovering he was going to be a father, but admits finding out Victoria was expecting a daughter was a different prospect, and he is so protective of Harper he joked she will be kept in a tower like fairytale princess Rapunzel so she can't meet boys.

He quipped: ''Absolutely not. She's not going out. She's gonna be like Rapunzel, she's gonna be up in the tower!

''To have a daughter is a whole different thing, I'm not saying I love my daughter more, but the boys are independent and autonomous, but a little girl, she wants her daddy, she wants her brothers to notice her she wants her mother to look after her, it's a whole different thing.''