Former England men's captain Beckham praised the Lionesses for their positive impact on kids in the UK following their Euro 2022 win last summer, having seen the effect in his own daughter, Harper.

"After last year, I've followed the team and the girls throughout their seasons. I've seen the talent and seen the passion that you girls have got. It's incredible to see and it's infectious to see you, as a team, play," he said, in a conversation courtesy of adidas.

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"It was so inspirational. My daughter was talking about it at school, she was talking about it with her friends and she talked about it with me. To hear my daughter get inspired by what you girls were doing was incredible.

"All of a sudden, in the last 10 years, the rise of the women's game, you're starting to see packed-out stadiums, you're seeing it advertised everywhere. It must make you feel amazing because you've been part of that growth."

Russo was delighted to hear Beckham's own experience, adding that inspiring the next generation is a key aim for the Lionesses.

"They're the stories you want to be hearing because girls in football hasn't always been a super popular thing. So to have young girls wanting to start kicking a football around was what we wanted our message to be," she said.

"Obviously we wanted to win the tournament too, but that's what we wanted our message to be going forward.

"It still feels weird because when I was a young girl, if I wanted to go and watch my idols growing up - like Kelly Smith, for example - you had to physically be in the stadium to watch her.

"But even young boys with female names on the back of their shirts, five or 10 years ago, that would never have been the case.

"Winning trophies is massive in your career but when you see little kids with the names on the back of the shirt, that's what means the most.

"It's so nice to hear the stories like your daughter, it's incredible that we can inspire people by just doing what we love in playing football, which has the power to do a lot that you don't necessarily realise until maybe one day when you look back at it all. But it's incredible and hopefully, we'll have a very successful year."

As Russo prepares for this summer's Women's World Cup, Beckham knows all too well about representing England at major tournaments. This year marks 25 years since his first World Cup in 1998, and he told Russo that there will always be pressure playing for their country.

"As an England player, you're always going to have that pressure," Beckham said.

"I'm sorry to say that, but you're always going to have that because you've just won the Euros, you're the most talked about team in the game, the most talked about individuals in the game so that's a good pressure to have. You'd rather have it that way than any other way.

"All you've got to know is you have a lot of people back home supporting you. They're going to be right behind the squad for the whole tournament, the ups and downs, because we always have those. But you stay together and stick together."

Beckham scored some iconic England goals in his own international career, and took the chance to quiz Russo on her incredible backheel goal against Sweden in the Euro 2022 semi-final.

"I don't think I'll ever do it again. I don't even know where it came from," she added. "I think after, some freestylers followed me on Instagram and I thought 'that is just not me as a player whatsoever', I think they got the wrong end of the stick.

"One thing that made the summer so incredible was that every player felt they could play with that freedom and instinct and show a bit of personality which, in a major tournament, sometimes seems quite daunting.

"People say to us now 'do you think you're going to have more pressure on you now you've won the Euros', but we always say England have always had a massive target on their back, men and women, going into tournaments."

What is the World Cup schedule?

The group stage will begin on Thursday July 20 and run over a two-week period finishing on Thursday August 3 and see group winners and runners-up progress to the round of 16, which takes place from Saturday August 5 to Tuesday August 8.

The quarter-finals, which will be held in Wellington, Auckland, Brisbane and Sydney, are scheduled for Friday August 11 and Saturday August 12.

The first semi-final will then be played on Tuesday August 15 in Auckland, with the other semi-final taking place on Wednesday August 16 at the Accor Stadium in Sydney, which will then host the final on Sunday August 20.

A third-place play-off will be played the day before the final on Saturday August 19 in Brisbane.