1999
Intercontinental Cup winner (Manchester United) 1999 Champions League winner (Manchester United) 1996 Premiership Champions (Manchester United) 1997 Premiership Champions (Manchester United) 1999 Premiership Champions (Manchester United) 2000 Premiership Champions (Manchester United) 2001 Premiership Champions (Manchester United) 2003 Premiership Champions (Manchester United) 1996 FA Cup winner (Manchester United) 1999 FA Cup winner (Manchester United) 2004 Spanish Cup Finals (Real Madrid) 2003 League Cup Finals (Manchester United)
David Robert Joseph Beckham OBE (born May 2, 1975) is an English
footballer born in Leytonstone, London. He is a midfielder for
Real Madrid and captain of the English national team. He is
noted for the quality of his crossing and ability to hit free-kicks
and corners, particularly at long-range free-kicks and also for
his marriage to a Spice Girl. He has played most of his career
for Manchester United.
Club Career
Manchester United 1995-2003
Beckham first signed a YTS (youth training scheme) contract (this
is similar to an apprenticeship) with 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 had come forward 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. Begining with the 2001-02
season the relationship between Fergusson 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 loosing 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 Champions League semi-final second
leg at Old Trafford against Real Madrid in which although only
brought on for the last half of the match he still scored twice
including a goal from open play. 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.
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.
International Career - England
By 1998 he was a regular international, and travelled with the
England squad to the FIFA 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.
Following England's poor performance in the 2000 European
Championship (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 Meta
Tarsal 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 leading 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.
