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David Robert Joseph Beckham
OBE (born May 2, 1975) is an English footballer born in Leytonstone,
London. He is currently a midfielder for Real Madrid and captain of the
English national team, noted for the quality of his crossing and ability
to hit free-kicks and corners, particularly long-range free-kicks.
David Beckham is, by most
counts and according to number of hits on the Google search engine,
the most famous sports personality in the world. A celebrated metrosexual, he is known for his celebrity lifestyle, good looks and
wide international fan-base. He is married to former Spice Girl Victoria
Adams and they have three sons, Brooklyn, Romeo, and Cruz. He started
his career at Manchester United, where he spent over a decade.
* * * *
Club Career
Manchester United
1991-2003
Beckham first signed a YTS
(youth training scheme) contract (this is similar to an apprenticeship)
with Manchester United in 1991, and made his League debut in 1995, aged
19. The next year, he came to wider public notice when playing against
Wimbledon; having spotted the opposition goalkeeper, Neil Sullivan, had
come forward off his line, he kicked a lob from the halfway line that
went over the keeper into the net. As the controversial Eric Cantona was
suspended for a large part of the 1995-96 season due to an assault on a
spectator, Beckham became the focus of the Manchester United marketing
effort and helped the side to the Premiership and FA Cup trophies and to
their dominance of domestic football. In the 1998-99 season, he was part
of the United team that won the "treble" - Premier League, FA Cup and
Champions League, a feat unprecedented in English football, which earned
the club's manager, Alex Ferguson, a knighthood. Beginning with the
2001-02 season the relationship between Ferguson and Beckham began to
deteriorate though the factors contributing to this had less to do with
Beckham's performance on the pitch and more to do with the continual
pressures of agents and sponsors and a continuous series of leaked
stories apparently originating from Victoria Beckham. This conflict
reached a peak during the 2002-3 season with 'The Battle of the Boot'
when after losing a match to Arsenal an enraged Fergusson reportedly
castigated team members in the dressing room and then kicked a football
boot that struck Beckham over the eye requiring stitches. After this
episode transfer stories appearing to originate with Victoria were rife,
linking Beckham with Chelsea and Barcelona. Beckham's last match for
Manchester United was the final league match against Everton at Goodison
Park in which he scored the winner, his last act as a player was lifting
the Barclay's Premiership trophy at the match's conclusion. In total
Beckham scored 86 goals in 397 games for Man United, a rate of roughly 2
goals every 9 games, highly commendable for a midfielder.
Real Madrid 2003-present
On June 17, 2003, Beckham
signed a four-year contract with Real Madrid of Spain, potentially worth
up to €35 million (£25 million, USD 41 million).
Apart from benefiting from
his football ability, this transfer gives the Spanish club an
opportunity to profit from merchandising, especially in the Far East,
where Beckham is enormously popular, and Manchester United have until
now had the lion's share of interest. It is probably no coincidence that
Beckham was transferred just before Real started a far-eastern tour, but
it would be very unfair to say that his marketing potential alone was
the only reason for his transfer. At the time of the announcement of his
transfer to Real Madrid, Beckham and his wife (Victoria) were on a
week-long tour of Japan, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Thailand promoting
beauty products, chocolate, motor oil, and mobile phones, which it was
reported would earn them more than the entire first year of his Real
Madrid contract.
He successfully completed
the transfer on July 1 and was presented with the squad number of 23 on
July 2. He is believed to have chosen the number as a tribute to his
idol, Michael Jordan, who made number 23 famous with the Chicago Bulls.
Real Madrid shirts bearing his name and number were sold out in Madrid
on the day his transfer was completed and Real Madrid were expected to
receive €624,000 for the sale of the shirts.
His transfer to Real Madrid
has proven very fruitful for both Beckham and the club. Beckham scored
five times in his first 16 matches (including Real's 600th goal in the
European Cup/Champions League, against Olympique Marseille on 26
November 2003), a higher scoring rate than his last year at Manchester
United (11 goals in 52 games). He has become a favourite of the
notoriously fickle Real Madrid crowd, and established an excellent
playing relationship with Ronaldo.
During the summer of 2004,
Real also signed Englishmen Michael Owen and Jonathan Woodgate.
England career
By 1998, Beckham was a
regular international, and travelled with the England squad to the World
Cup. In the second round of that competition, he received a red-card for
retaliation, following a foul challenge by the Argentine Diego Simeone.
This act arguably cost England the game (which they lost on penalties)
and the chance of advancing in the tournament. On returning home,
Beckham became the target of criticism, sometimes justified (the
accusation of petulance, for example), and his performance was
negatively contrasted with that of Michael Owen, but much merely
gratuitous including being burnt in effigy. Piers Morgan, the then
editor of the Daily Mirror later apologised for some of the harsher
criticism. Most commentators were mollified when it became public that
the then England Manager Glen Hoddle supported a number of new age
beliefs and practices that had created some conflict in the England team
camp. He received a similar vilification following his dismissal for a
dangerous challenge in the World Club Championships the next year.
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Following England's poor
performance in Euro 2000 (from which Beckham was one of the few players
to emerge with credit) and later poor performances, the departure of
Kevin Keegan as manager saw Beckham promoted to captain, initially under
caretaker manager Peter Taylor and maintained by Sven-Göran Eriksson.
His leadership, mainly by example due to his fitness and workrate helped
England to qualify for the 2002 World Cup Finals and the 1-5 defeat of
Germany in Munich during a qualifier (a pivotal event for English
football fans). The final step in Beckham's conversion from villain to
hero happened in England's 2-2 draw against Greece. Needing only one
point from the match in order to qualify for the World Cup, Beckham
dragged an otherwise poor England side to qualification with sheer
determination and a perfectly executed, last-minute free kick.
Meanwhile, taking the role of captain seems to have helped mature him,
in both skill and temperament.
Two months before the start
of the 2002 World Cup Finals, Beckham was injured during a Champions
League match breaking the metatarsal bones of his left foot. It was a
cause of some controversy as the player that caused the injury was
Argentinian and as England had already been drawn against them in the
group stage the British Press speculated the injury was deliberate to
'hobble' England's star player. After the miracle of the win in Munich
expectations for the England squad were high but even though Beckham was
declared match fit for the first match against Sweden he had only had
limited training. Despite a good first half and taking the lead, England
faded in the second half and Beckham was substituted with England
drawing 1-1 with Sweden. The stage was then set for the showdown with
Argentina. During the charged first half Owen won a penalty and when
Beckham stepped forward to take it he was approached by Simeone but who
was ignored. Beckham struck a clean penalty and then England hung on to
win the match and then went on to draw 0-0 with Nigeria. The second
round match against Denmark saw Beckham contribute to two goals from set
pieces against a lacklustre side. The quarter final against Brazil again
saw England start strongly with Michael Owen's brilliant individual
effort but then faded after conceding a goal due to a clear error by the
keeper David Seaman. During the second half Beckham pulled out of a
crucial challenge that led directly to Ronaldinho's goal that sent
England out of the competition.
Beckham played in all
England's matches at Euro 2004, but failed to shine. He had his penalty
saved by former Manchester United team-mate Fabien Barthez in his side's
2-1 defeat to France in their opening group game. Then, when England's
Quarter-Final against hosts Portugal went to a penalty shootout, he was
the first England player to attempt a shot. Beckham fired his shot far
over the crossbar and England went on to lose the shoot-out 6-5 after
Englishman Darius Vassell also missed. Beckham later blamed the miss on
the poor state of the pitch, the British press blamed referee Urs Meier
for the loss (he had earlier disallowed a contentious goal by Sol
Campbell) even publishing his phone number and postal address. As with
his performance in 1998 Beckham was negatively compared with the rising
stars of the England 2004 team Wayne Rooney and Frank Lampard and in
some sectors it was speculated that the revelations about his private
life earlier that year contributed to a poor performance.
The Spanish spectator who
caught Beckham's miss put the ball up for auction on eBay España. eBay
soon determined that virtually all of the bids, including one for
€10million, were fake. When bidding closed on 22 July, the winning bid
of €28,050 was made by the Canadian internet casino GoldenPalace.com,
which announced that it plans to exhibit the ball around the world for
charitable purposes.
Beckham again found himself
the centre of self-inflicted controversy following the match against
Wales as part of the 2006 World Cup Qualifying Round. After scoring a
brilliant goal from open play to give England a 2 - 0 lead Beckham then
received a yellow card for a body checking foul on a Wales defender that
saw the other player stretchered off and Beckham being substituted with
a fractured rib. As this was the second yellow card he had received in
the qualifying competition he was banned from the next match. Beckham
later admitted that the foul had been intentional to ensure he would not
carry forward a yellow card to the later qualifying stage even though he
would miss the next England match. While some praised Beckham for his
honesty others questioned his judgement considering his status as a role
model for younger players.
Beckham's celebrity
lifestyle
Beckham's highly publicised
marriage to Spice Girl and media celebrity Victoria Adams, otherwise
known as Posh Spice, has made them both popular targets for the tabloid
press, which has dubbed the couple "Posh and Becks". They have three
sons, Brooklyn, born March 4, 1999, Romeo, born September 1, 2002, and
Cruz, born February 20, 2005. Beckham is well-known for his frequent
hairstyle changes and, despite being criticised for influencing
teenagers' hairstyles, still regularly appears sporting a radically new
look.
Early on in his career
Beckham secured a number of lucrative sponsorship deals including
Adidas, Vodafone and Diesel.
In 1998 Beckham was
pictured wearing a Sarong while on holiday with Victoria that resulted
in much British media comment and created a characterisation of David
Beckham as a well meaning and likable innocent often embarrassed by
Victoria's interest in her own celebrity. This image was fixed early on
in the pair's relationship when Victoria admitted she had little
interest in Football. The British comedians Alistair McGowan and Ronni
Ancona have fashioned a popular impersonation of the couple that
reinforces this characterisation.
Following his move to Real
Madrid and the disappointment of Euro 2004, British media interest in
the Beckham's has faded despite the alleged affair with Loos. In
December 2004 the announcement of plans for the christening of their two
children, including the construction of a fake Gothic chapel for
£120,000 on the grounds of their Berkshire estate, were received with
some ridicule, especially as neither are held to be strongly religious.
Despite their sometimes 'gauche' lifestyle Beckham is well regarded for
being a good father and supporting a number of charitable causes.
However, he has become more
well known in North America since the success of the British film Bend
It Like Beckham. It is about a British Sikh girl who idolises David
Beckham and harbours ambitions of being a football player.
In 2001, Beckham became the
BBC Sports Personality of the Year. In the summer of 2003, Beckham was
made an OBE in Queen Elizabeth II's honours list.
In May of 2003 Manchester
United manager Sir Alex Ferguson ordered David Beckham not to wear his
hair band during matches. It has been speculated that he believed it to
be too effeminate.
In 2003 his fame was
evident when Staffordshire University provided a university course about
the star.
In April 2004, the British
tabloid News of the World carried claims by his former personal
assistant Rebecca Loos that he and Loos had had an extramarital affair.
A week later, a second woman, Malaysian-born Australian model Sarah
Marbeck, claimed that she had slept with Beckham on two occasions.
Beckham has denied both allegations, describing them as "ludicrous".
In July of 2004, an
intruder was arrested at David Beckham's home for scaling a wall with a
can of gasoline. The Sun newspaper reported that the man appeared angry
with Beckham and intended to burn down the house.
He is a UNICEF Goodwill
International ambassador.
In July of 2005, some
regard Beckham as instrumental in the success of the Olympic bid for
London 2012.
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Transfer rumours
Near the end of the 2003-04
season, The Daily Telegraph of London reported that Beckham's major
sponsors were trying to arrange for him to return to England for the
2004-05 season. Sources within the family told the Telegraph that
Beckham would almost certainly be back in London. Real Madrid denied
rumours that they were interested in selling Beckham, and banned British
reporters from access to the team.
Because of the extremely
high fee that Real Madrid could command for a Beckham deal, and the fact
that the other teams that could afford the fee, had financial
constraints (Arsenal, Liverpool) or personality issues (Man U) that
would have made a deal unlikely, speculation immediately focused on
Chelsea, with its billionaire owner Roman Abramovich. Adding fuel to the
rumours, Chelsea's manager at that time, Claudio Ranieri, told an
Italian newspaper that the club was pursuing both Beckham and Ronaldo,
and The Evening Standard of London reported that Chelsea was prepared to
pay £40 million for Beckham.
However, on 20 May,
Beckham, in a statement issued through his agent, quashed the transfer
rumours, stating that he would see out the remaining three years of his
contract in Madrid. He added that his wife and sons, who had yet to move
to Spain, would join him there. In November 2004 it was reported that
Real Madrid intended to offer Beckham a two-year extension to his
contract, which would effectively keep him in Madrid for the remainder
of his playing career.
In 2005, Beckham started
dropping hints that he may yet leave Madrid, expressing frustration with
paparazzi harassing his family. Perhaps inspired by these hints, and as
an April Fool's joke, Bayern Munich announced on its official Web site
that it was set to sign Beckham to a three-year deal, effective with the
2005-06 season. Spokespeople for Bayern freely admitted that the report
was a hoax.
[Added by PSP: In January 2007, David
Beckham announced that he will be leaving Real Madrid and has signed a
five year contract with the L.A. Galaxy for approximatedly $250-million
dollars.]
* * * *
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Date Article Copied:
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