David Beckham
Sir David Beckham, knight, MLS Cup winner as both player and owner, and the man who turned football fame into a global business empire, is still rewriting what a retired footballer can be.
David Beckham (born 2 May 1975, Leytonstone, London) is one of the most recognisable athletes in history, not just for what he did on a pitch, but for what he built off it. His right foot was genuinely extraordinary: inch-perfect crosses, bending free-kicks, and the work ethic to back up every headline. He earned 115 England caps, captained his country 59 times, and appeared in three World Cups.
His club career reads like a greatest-hits tour of world football: six Premier League titles and the 1999 Champions League Treble with Manchester United, La Liga glory with Real Madrid in 2007, MLS Cups with LA Galaxy in 2011 and 2012, plus stints at AC Milan and Paris Saint-Germain before he retired in May 2013.
Since hanging up his boots, Beckham has become a serious businessman. As president and co-owner of Inter Miami CF, the MLS club he co-founded with Jorge and José Mas, he pulled off the most talked-about signing in MLS history by bringing Lionel Messi to the club in 2023. Inter Miami then won its first MLS Cup on 7 December 2025, making Beckham the first person ever to lift the MLS Cup as both a player and an owner. He also launched the wellness brand IM8 in December 2024.
On 4 November 2025, Beckham was knighted at Windsor Castle, named in King Charles III’s 2025 Birthday Honours for services to sport and charity. He is now officially Sir David Beckham, a title that would have seemed inevitable to anyone watching his career arc.
People search for Beckham constantly: his family, his money, his health, his hair, and whatever Inter Miami is doing next. He sits at the rare intersection of sport, celebrity culture, fashion (via wife Victoria Beckham), and entrepreneurship, which means he’s almost always in a headline somewhere.