The football star, seen here arriving at a hotel in London ahead of his team's recent clash with Arsenal, spends hours making sure all the furniture at his home is arranged in perfect symmetry
Photo: ? Alphapress.com

"Everything has to match in the house," revealed his stylish wife Victoria
Photo: Alphapress.com

While the lifestyle of England skipper David Beckham might seem like pure fantasy to those on the outside looking in, the iconic athlete has revealed he is besieged by personal demons. The handsome midfielder has spent many years battling Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, a distressing mental condition which forces its suffers to perform strange rituals.

"I have got this disorder where I have to have everything in a straight line or everything has to be in pairs," confessed the father-of-three. "I'll put my Pepsi cans in the fridge and if there's one too many then I'll put it in another cupboard somewhere. I'll go into a hotel room and before I can relax I have to move all the leaflets and all the books and put them in a drawer."

Speaking in a TV interview, David also admitted to regularly spending hours straightening the furniture at his Madrid home. In order to satisfy his anxieties, he wears a new pair of football boots for every match and buys exactly 20 packets of Super Noodles every time he goes to a supermarket.

Devoted wife Victoria has been witness to her husband's troubles. "Everything has to match in the house," she disclosed recently.

When asked if he had tried to overcome the illness Becks said: "I would like to. I have tried to and I can't stop." The 30-year-old went on to reveal that he kept the condition a secret from his Real Madrid teammates after players at his previous club, Manchester United, played jokes on him by barging into his hotel room when they played away games.

"I thought they were just coming in for a chat, but then they'd go out and I'm thinking 'something's different here'. And then all the magazines would be all wonky. They'd have been in my wardrobe and all my trousers and my shoes would be all over the place."

David is not the first major star to be afflicted with OCD, which is listed by the World Health Organisation as one of the ten most debilitating illnesses in existence. Other sufferers include Billy Bob Thornton and Alec Baldwin, along with historical figures like Florence Nightingale and Charles Darwin. Perhaps the most well-known celebrity to have battled the condition was billionaire Howard Hughes, who was famously portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio in The Aviator.