- International matches: David Beckham has played 115 matches for England between 1996-2009
- Champions League: He is the first English footballer to play 100 Champions League matches
- Technology: Technically, he was best known for his ability to turn the ball over or around his opponents in free kicks
- Victories: He has won at least one league for every team he has played a full season for. These teams include: Manchester United (6 x Premier League, 2 x FA Cup and 1 x UEFA Champions League), Real Madrid (1 x La Liga), Los Angeles Galaxy (2 x MLS cup) and Paris Saint-German (1 x Ligue 1)
- Ligue 1: When Beckham joined the French team Paris Saint-German, they won the French league ‘Ligue 1’ for the first time since 1994
- Economy: According to Forbes magazine, David Beckham was the highest paid footballer in 2012 with an annual income of 37 million euros
- VM: In the years that Beckham has played for the England national team, they have never made it past the quarterfinals of the World Cup (1998, 2002, 2006 – he was injured in 2010). Some coaches and football fans believe that David Beckham is partly to blame for the lack of progress in the 3 World Cups
- Pension: On May 16, 2013, David Beckham announced that he would retire from professional football after the current season
- Movie: His name appears in a movie title; “Bend It Like Beckham”. The movie is about a teenager who is a Beckham fan and defies his family to play soccer
- Wedding: His wedding to Victoria Adams cost no less than €585 million and took place at a castle in Dublin, Ireland in 1999
Fact: David Beckham’s contract with LA Galaxy was originally supposed to bring in $250 million over 5 years – but ended up bringing in $32.5 million
Facts about David Beckham’s background
- Name: David Beckham’s full name is ‘David Robert Joseph Beckham’. His nickname are ‘Becks’, ‘Golden Balls’ and ‘Spice Boy’
- Birth: He was born on May 2, 1975 in Leytonstone, London, England
- Far: His father is David Alan Edward ‘Ted’ Beckham and worked as a kitchen fitter
- Mother: His mother is Sandra Georgina West and worked as a hairdresser
- Siblings: He has an older and younger sister
- Manchester United fans: Like David Beckham himself, both his parents and his two sisters are fanatical Manchester United fans
- Victoria Beckham: He is married to Victoria Beckham (née Adams). She was a member of the Spice Girls, where she was nicknamed ‘Posh Spice’
- Kids: Together they have children: Harper Seven (daughter – born July 10, 2011) Cruz David (son – February 20, 2005), Romeo James (son – born September 1, 2002), Brooklyn Joseph (son – born March 4, 1999)
Fact: Victoria and David Beckham’s 1999 wedding cost a whopping 585 million euros!
Beckham’s career – chronologically
- Childhood: David Beckham has been a talent since he was little and at the age of 11 he won the coveted Bobby Charlton Soccer Schools National Skills competition
- Youth: He left home at the age of 16 (in 1991), where he started playing for Manchester United’s training and youth teams. At the age of 17, he started playing professionally for the team
- 1996: He won recognition when he scored from midfield for Manchester United (against Wimbledon). The shooting distance was almost 55 meters! That same year, he made his first appearance for the England national team and qualified the team for the World Cup in a match against Moldova, which ended 3-0
- 1998: Beckham was shown a red card for kicking out at Argentinian player Diego Simeone. England were knocked out of the World Cup and many believed that Beckham bore a large part of the responsibility for this
- 2000: David Beckham was named captain of the England national team
- 2002: He broke a bone in his foot but will still play in the World Cup finals. However, England ended up losing to Brazil in the quarterfinals
- 2003: David Beckham was sold by Manchester United to Real Madrid for 30 million euros. In the same year, he received an Officer of the Order of the British Empire from Queen Elizabeth II
- 2007: He signed a contract with American team Los Angeles Galaxy and joined them immediately after Real Madrid. The contract was supposed to earn Beckham 250 million dollars over 5 years, but in the end he only received 32.5 million dollars
- 2009: Beckham was loaned to A.C. Milan 2 times by LA Galaxy
- 2010: He suffered an Achilles injury and was unable to participate in the World Cup
- 2012: He re-signed a 2-year contract with LA Galaxy, but that same year he announced he would leave LA Galaxy and MLS Cup
- 2013: David Beckham signed a contract with French team Paris Saint-German and donated all his earnings to children’s charities in Paris. That same year, he announced that he would retire from professional football at the end of the season
See also: When did David Beckham come to the different clubs?
