David Beckham: Captain Sir Tom, thank you for having me here today, I'm very excited about meeting you and it's a real pleasure for me to be down here personally to say thank you, but also present you with a little present from the England team.
Captain Sir Tom Moore: Thank you, I'm delighted to receive that honour from you, especially from you, so thank you very much indeed.
DB: Could you have ever dreamt that your fundraising could've got to this number? I think it amazed, not just the whole country, but the whole world and it was such an inspirational story. Could you have ever dreamt that was possible?
CSTM: No, and I never ever t that. It's hard to visualise £40m, if you try to see a pile of money there that's £40m. But it's a magnificent sum. When we first started earning the money was when Colin [son-in-law, Colin Ingram-Moore] said 'I'll give you a pound for each time you walk' so I thought that was a good idea and I after did that it was obvious it was going to get a bit expensive. So I spoke to the local press and told them what we were doing and from then on, it grew and grew and more and more people took an interest and the money kept coming in and coming in.
DB: So how have you been handling the attention? Because the attention has been incredible...
CSTM: I must say I've enjoyed it, it was no hardship.
Every team needs a captain.
— England (@England) July 11, 2020
Introducing the first inspirational member of our #Lionhearts: @captaintommoore 🙌
We asked a #ThreeLions icon – and former skipper himself – to welcome him to the squad... 👀 pic.twitter.com/3RKfWZdgQu
DB: Out of all the messages you've received, which I'm sure is quite a few now, what's been your favourite message so far?
CSTM: The one that really stood out was the direct message from the Queen. To me, that was a great honour. I've always held the Queen as somebody special and she's a one off, so to get close to the Queen, that will be absolutely the world for me, really magnificent. It's something, that some time ago, I never would've anticipated and that would be my good fortune.
DB: Obviously you've served your country and led as a captain and been led...I mean, what makes a good captain do you feel? What makes a great leader?
CSTM: Well, you know yourself because you've been a great leader. I think you have to have the right personal spirit and you have to rather like people and realise that there's good in everyone and as a leader you can bring it out of them. It's no good asking me about a leader, when you're sitting there when you know you've been one of the biggest and finest leaders in football that we've ever had...
DB: Well, coming from you, that means a lot...
CSTM: When I joined the Army, I was conscripted at the age of 20 and you had no choice. There were 500 men and I decided that I was going to be one of the best. From the day that I joined the Army, I wanted to be the best out of that 500 and I worked on that throughout and it paid back, because I did get promotion and eventually I went down to the officer training unit to become an officer, which was one of the things I'd set out to do from the very day I'd joined.
DB: I might get you to say that to my kids, because it's so inspiring to hear you talk about being the best and wanting to be the best. That confidence to want to be the best at whatever you do, I try to tell my children that every single day. As you're such an inspiration, these times are very difficult for many people around the world, but what would you tell people and what would be your message at this difficult time?
CSTM: The term that I've used is that tomorrow will be a good day. I think we have convinced people that things are bad, but they will get better - they always have got better. Don't be too miserable about it because if you know full well that things will soon be improving and things always do improve. The sun comes out and things get better. It may take time but it will always get better. That's what we need to convince people, today may be a poor day, but tomorrow is going to be a much better day.
DB: Well, Captain Sir Tom, I just want to say, like many people have said over the last few months, how inspirational you are with what you've done for the NHS and what you've done for people. At a difficult time, I think you've been able to shine a light and bring a smile to millions of peoples' faces. So on behalf of myself and everyone at the England team, we have a gift for you, that we'd like to present. That's just a small gift of appreciation just to say how inspiring and thankful everybody is because of your inspirational story.
CSTM: I'm greatly honoured to receive this, it means something special to me, especially coming from you and really I'm overwhelmed by such a gift and an honour. Thank you very much indeed and thank you to all the people in the organisation.
DB: Thank you so much.
