Llanrhaeadr locals were surprised when former Manchester United and England star David Beckham turned up at the local football pitch – before taking off in a private helicopter.

The football superstar posted a video of local attraction Pistyll Rhaeadr, the highest waterfall in Wales, on his Instagram page along with the caption ‘ridiculously beautiful’ to his 40 million followers.

However, the midfielder isn’t coming out of retirement – it is rumoured he was in the area to shoot an advert.

Once that was over, he was driven to his waiting helicopter, which had landed on the pitch – although he took time out to meet fans.

Llanrhaeadr FC took to Twitter with pictures of locals meeting the star, joking that he’d even signed a contract with the club.

Catrin Roberts, who was one of the lucky locals to meet Mr Beckham, said he was a “proper gentleman”.

“It was absolutely fantastic,” she said.

“He spent so much time with locals taking pictures with everyone who was there.

“At first he walked past us, but that was just to put his bag in the helicopter and then posed for pictures.

“We saw the helicopter land in the field, and being nosey locals we couldn’t help having a look.

“It’s normally an air ambulance but this was a private helicopter and the pilots wouldn’t tell us anything.

“We waited for an hour and then David Beckham turned up – very cool, calm and casual. It was a very different Friday night for Llanrhaeadr.”

Although the helicopter left three, one foot-deep holes in the pitch, the starstruck locals didn’t seem to mind.