Ward-Prowse Prefers Beckham Meeting To Breaking Free-Kick Record

Ward-Prowse struck his 14th direct Premier League free kick in Southampton's 2-2 draw with Brighton and Hove Albion on Sunday.

Former Manchester United and Real Madrid star Beckham is the Premier League's record free kick holder with 18. Ward-Prowse needs four more to catch up with Beckham.

After falling behind twice at the AMEX Stadium, Southampton needed Ward-Prowse's dead ball abilities to get back into the game on the cusp of half time before the England international added a second from range in the second half.

The 27-year-old says he would be glad to break Beckham's record but is more interested in meeting his idol.

"My main motivation is to meet my hero from when I was a kid," he told BBC Sport. "If I do get that record, hopefully he'll reach out, but there's a long way to go yet." 

"I love practising them," he said. "Once I score one, I just want to score another."

"We gifted them two goals and we felt at half-time we were very much in the game. It's frustrating when you give teams those sorts of leads, but we showed great character," he added. 

"Sometimes this happens in the Premier League when you're up against good teams, but we were more frustrated at ourselves. To come from behind is never easy and we did that today. 

"We wanted to start the second half quickly and continue the momentum. Probably, on another day we would have nicked a third."

Ward-Prowse has scored eight direct free-kick goals in the Premier League since the start of last season, which is twice as many as any other player in Europe's big five leagues and four times as many as any other Premier League player.