Fated to Be a footballer football

He’s known for scoring big goals in Europe – and trying to do the same thing in America. His pinpoint kicking accuracy has made him one of scorer’s biggest stars, and his movie-star status makes him one of the world’s most recognizable people. Here’s a closer look at David Beckham!
Name David Robert Joseph Beckham
Height 5′ 11½
Nationality British
Date of Birth 2 May 1975,
Place of Birth Leytonstone, London, England, UK

Fated to Be a Footballer

Beckham, the middle child between two sisters, Lynne and Joanne, grows up in a working-class East London family of ardent Manchester United soccer fans. His father Ted, an appliance repairman, and mother Sandra, a hair stylist, encourage him to play.
Scout, You’re It!

An 11-year-old Beckham wins an important youth soccer event, the Bobby Charlton Soccer Schools National Skills competition. He also impresses Manchester United scouts while playing a game for his neighborhood club, the Ridgeway Rovers. When his mother tells him Manchester United wants him to try out for their youth league, he “just stood there and cried,” Beckham says in Sports Illustrated.

Living the Dream

Beckham leaves home at 16 to play for the training division of his favorite club, Manchester United, a legendary English soccer team with more than fifty million fans worldwide. He works on developing his signature free kicks, passing and corner kicks – skills that later make him known for his deadly accurate, game-clinching goals. He joins the team proper in 1993 and makes the starting lineup for the first time two years later, making an immediate splash as a talented goalmaker. He’s voted the Professional Footballers’ Association Young Player of the Year in 1997. Beckham had made 265 Premier league appearances for United and scored 61 goals. He also made 81 Champions league appearances, scoring 15 goals.

Brand Beckham

Beckham signs an endorsement deal with sportswear and athletic equipment giant Adidas. In 1998, he’ll net $13 million from his endorsement contracts; by 2005, having become a spokesman for Pepsi and razor maker Gillette, among others, Sports Illustratedestimates that he makes $30 million every year thanks to his corporate endorsements.

Posh Meets Becks

Victoria “Posh Spice” Adams, at the height of Spice Girls fame, sits for an interview with a soccer magazine. The reporter shows her a picture of Beckham. “I had no idea who he was,” she tells Britain’s Sun, “but I remember thinking one word: gorgeous.” She meets Beckham for the first time after a United-Sheffield game that month, and it was “love at first sight.” They become a British tabloid obsession.

Ring Me

Beckham proposes at the stately 19th-century Rookery Hall Hotel in northwest England with a $65,000 three-carat diamond solitaire. Posh counters with a lavish $80,000 ring for him.

A Nearly Royal Wedding

Beckham and Posh invite 236 guests to their black-tie wedding at a castle outside of Dublin, Ireland. The bride and groom have gold-plated, red-velvet thrones, and Posh wears a crown and a one-of-a-kind Vera Wang dress. An 18-piece orchestra plays the Spice Girls, and the couple sells exclusive coverage of the event to British tabloid OK! for $1.5 million. The estimated cost of the wedding: $800,000.