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David Beckham

Beckham: My World, David Beckham

Beckham : Both Feet on the Ground: An Autobiography David Beckham, Tom Watt

David Beckham : Made in Manchester - An Unofficial Photographic Record. Eamonn Clarke, James Clarke

Famous English people

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 former 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 former Spice Girl.

Club Career

Manchester United 1995-2003

Beckham first signed a YTS contract (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.

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 loosing a match to Arsenal an enraged Ferguson 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.

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.

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. 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.

England went into the 2006 World Cup as one of the favorites, but eventually went out in a penalty shoot-out to Portugal following a string of disappointing performances. Beckham was one of the few players to emerge from the tournament with any credit.

In England's opening game against Paraguay on June 10, it was Beckham's free kick that led to an own-goal by Carlos Gamarra. In England's next match against Trinidad and Tobago Beckham's cross in the 83rd minute led to Peter Crouch's goal which put England ahead 1-0. Beckham gave another assist to Steven Gerrard. In the end they won 2-0. He was named Man-of-the-Match by tournament sponsor Budweiser for this game.

In England's second round match against Ecuador, Beckham scored from a free kick in the 59th minute, becoming the first ever English player to score in three World Cups, and giving England a 1-0 victory and a place in the quarter-finals. This was despite being sick before the game and vomitting several times as a result of dehydration and illness after he scored the winning goal.

In England's final game against Portugal, a dejected Beckham was substituted following inury. A day after England were knocked out of the World Cup, an emotional Beckham made a statement in a news conference saying that he had stepped down as England captain, saying, "It has been an honour and privilege to captain my country but, having been captain for 58 of my 94 caps, I feel the time is right to pass on the armband as we enter a new era under Steve McClaren."

Having stepped down as captain after the World Cup, Beckham was dropped completely from the England national team selected by new coach Steve McClaren on 11 August, 2006. McClaren claimed that he was "looking to go in a different direction" with the team, and that Beckham "wasn't included within that". McClaren said Beckham could be recalled in future.

In a disappointing 0-0 home draw with Macedonia Beckham's quality and class were sorely missed, reviving hopes that he will soon wear the three lions once again.

In 2001, Beckham became the BBC Sports Personality of the Year. In the summer of 2003, Beckham was made an OBE.

More information

Beckham Magazine The Online David Beckham FanZine

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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the Wikipedia article "David Beckham".