Hello magazine profile:
The boy from East London first made everyone sit up and take notice when he scored a wonder goal on the first day of the 1995/6 English football season. In lobbing a 60-yard belter from inside his own half to beat Wimbledon goalkeeper Neil Sullivan, he marked the arrival of a football phenomenon.
Born in Leytonstone on May 2, 1975, David Robert Joseph Beckham was a Manchester United fan from a very early age. He even insisted on wearing a Red Devils shirt when training with London club Tottenham Hotspur as a schoolboy. The admiration was mutual – the biggest football club in the world had its eye on the young player – and, aged 16, he signed as a trainee with Man U.
The skinny teenager rose from cleaning the first team's boots to a spell in the reserves, before making his league debut in 1995, just a month shy of his twentieth birthday. But it wasn't until 1997 that he really emerged into the spotlight when he met and fell for Spice Girl Victoria Adams, commonly known as
Posh.
The attraction between the couple was instant, and ten months after embarking upon a relationship they announced their engagement. "I've met the man I know I'm going to grow old and wrinkly with," gushed a love-struck Victoria.
David could do no wrong – until the 1998 England-Argentina match in France. The golden boy of English football was sent off early in the second half for a petulant kick against Argentinian player Diego Simeone. England was out on penalties and Beckham's name was mud.
Following the match, David flew straight to New York where the
Spice Girls were on tour, and where his and Victoria's son Brooklyn Joseph was presumably conceived. Born on March 4, 1999, by caesarean section at London's Portland Hospital, Beckham junior became, without doubt, the most famous baby in Britain. Four months after the birth of their son, the couple married in front of 229 guests in an opulent ceremony at Luttrelstown Castle in Dublin.
Marriage and fatherhood evidently agree with the sporting icon and David's football has never been better. After intense media speculation it was announced in 2003 that the life-long Manchester Utd fan would be moving to Real Madrid on a four-year contract. And, apart from making himself a permanent fixture as England captain – leading the boys to the quarterfinals in the 2002 World Cup – David became a dad for the second time in 2002, welcoming baby son Romeo on September 1. Third son Cruz followed in early 2005.
Then in November 2003, Beckham was honoured with the "best" award he'd ever received - an OBE from
the Queen. "It's not just for me but for Manchester United, England, all of my teammates and my family," he said.