Beckham gives cheer in Philippines typhoon zone

Football superstar David Beckham visited the Philippines on Thursday to give comfort to survivors of the Asian country’s deadliest ever typhoon — although not everyone was sure of his identity.
Hundreds of survivors of Super Typhoon Haiyan rushed out of their tent shelters in the central city of Tacloban to welcome the global celebrity, who is nevertheless unfamiliar to many citizens of the Philippines, where basketball rather than soccer is king.
“He’s so handsome. I heard he plays for the Azkals,” gushed mother-of-four Darilyn Bascug, referring to the Philippines’ national football team.
Shortly after Beckham’s arrival, another woman from the area approached an AFP reporter and asked timidly: “Is that man a celebrity?”

Wearing a black T-shirt with the logo of the United Nations Children’s Fund, the 38-year-old ex-England international visited a tent city for several hundred families who lost their homes when giant waves unleashed by Haiyan crashed into Tacloban’s coast.
Beckham spent over an hour inside a UNICEF tent set up as a nursery, where he played with dozens of young typhoon survivors.
The father-of-four stopped to greet babies and children staying in a shanty home made of scrap corrugated iron and wood.
“Very happy, very happy to visit everybody,” Beckham told reporters.
“Oh, my God,” a young woman screamed as she reached out to grab his hand.
He also visited a warehouse for relief goods donated by the UN in the nearby town of Palo.