Beckham was born in London, England on 2 May 1975. His father is an exceptional Manchester United fan and no doubt encouraged him to play soccer since young. At the tender age of 11, he won an important youth soccer event, and attracted the attention of Manchester United scouts. He joined Manchester United under the training division at the age of 16, and was officially contracted in 1993. He played his ManU debut game in 1995.
With his charming good looks and signature free-kicks, he gained popularity quickly. He went on to clinch several endorsement deals, including deals with Adidas, Pepsi & Gillette. In 1997, he met Victoria “Posh Spice” Adams, and Beckham proposed to her in Jan 1998. In the same year, Beckham became the most hated man in Britain after he was given a red card after kicking Diego Simeone who fouled him in the famous Argentina-England match. The English team went on to lose on penalty kicks. He received death threats after the match.
In 1999, Posh gave birth to Brooklyn, their first son. A wedding dinner was also held on 4th July, and it was estimated to cost around $800,000. He became the English captain in 2000. In 2001, Beckham became the nation’s hero when his free kick set the equaliser in the game against Greece. Consequently, England qualified for the 2002 World Cup.
He moved on to Real Madrid in 2003 after problems with manager Sir Alex Ferguson surfaced. There were not many achievements when he was wearing the Madrid shirt, and only won the La Liga title in 2007. It was also around this period that he launched his training academies in California, London and Los Angeles.
He joined the Los Angeles Galaxy in the Major League Soccer in 2007 amid rurmours that he wanted to help Posh pursue her fashion ambitions in the United States. He signed a 5-year contract, reportedly worth $250 million. It was a disappointing season for Beckham as he was ruled out for 6 weeks after injuring his right knee. On 30th October 2008, AC Milan announced that Beckham would join them on loan from 7th January 2009. It was rumoured that this move will cause Beckham to head back to play in Europe. Beckham expressed interest to stay in Milan the following month, but Milan was unable to match LAG’s transfer bid of around $10-15 million.