1980s
Fated to Be a Footballer
Beckham, the middle child between two sisters, Lynne and Joanne, grows up in a working-class East London family of ardent Manchester United soccer fans. His father Ted, an appliance repairman, and mother Sandra, a hair stylist, encourage him to play.
1986
Scout, You're It!
An 11-year-old Beckham wins an important youth soccer event, the Bobby Charlton Soccer Schools National Skills competition. He also impresses Manchester United scouts while playing a game for his neighborhood club, the Ridgeway Rovers. When his mother tells him Manchester United wants him to try out for their youth league, he "just stood there and cried," Beckham says in Sports Illustrated.
1991,July 08
Living the Dream
Beckham leaves home at 16 to play for the training division of his favorite club, Manchester United, a legendary English soccer team with more than fifty million fans worldwide. He works on developing his signature free kicks, passing and corner kicks – skills that later make him known for his deadly accurate, game-clinching goals. He joins the team proper in 1993 and makes the starting lineup for the first time two years later, making an immediate splash as a talented goalmaker. He's voted the Professional Footballers' Association Young Player of the Year in 1997.
1997
Brand Beckham
Beckham signs an endorsement deal with sportswear and athletic equipment giant Adidas. In 1998, he'll net $13 million from his endorsement contracts; by 2005, having become a spokesman for Pepsi and razor maker Gillette, among others, Sports Illustrated estimates that he makes $30 million every year thanks to his corporate endorsements.
March
Posh Meets Becks
Victoria "Posh Spice" Adams, at the height of Spice Girls fame, sits for an interview with a soccer magazine. The reporter shows her a picture of Beckham. "I had no idea who he was," she tells Britain's Sun, "but I remember thinking one word: gorgeous." She meets Beckham for the first time after a United-Sheffield game that month, and it was "love at first sight." They become a British tabloid obsession.
1998
January 24
Ring Me
Beckham proposes at the stately 19th-century Rookery Hall Hotel in northwest England with a $65,000 three-carat diamond solitaire. Posh counters with a lavish $80,000 ring for him.
June 30
The Most Hated Man in Britain
In a second-round World Cup match between England and Argentina, Beckham is ejected after kicking Argentine midfielder Diego Simeone after Simeone fouled him. The English team loses on penalty kicks, and Beckham becomes the nation's whipping boy – he receives death threats and an angry fan mails him two bullets with Beckham's name etched on them. Even British Prime Minister Tony Blair weighs in, saying, according to Sports Illustrated, "He is obviously going to have to learn from this."
1999
March 04
March 04
Carbon Copies Fiancée Posh gives birth to a son, Brooklyn Joseph, named after the New York borough where Posh found out she was pregnant. "The baby is gorgeous," PEOPLE reports her saying. "He has my nose and David's thighs." Second son Romeo comes Sept. 1, 2002, and Beckham gushes to PEOPLE, "Romeo's gorgeous. He's got Brooklyn's nose and Victoria's chin." A third son, Cruz, is born in Madrid on Feb. 20, 2005.
July 04
A Nearly Royal Wedding
Beckham and Posh invite 236 guests to their black-tie wedding at a castle outside of Dublin, Ireland. The bride and groom have gold-plated, red-velvet thrones, and Posh wears a crown and a one-of-a-kind Vera Wang dress. An 18-piece orchestra plays the Spice Girls, and the couple sells exclusive coverage of the event to British tabloid OK! for $1.5 million. The estimated cost of the wedding: $800,000.
2001
October 06
Once Again, a Nation's Hero
England qualifies for the 2002 World Cup due to Beckham's last-minute free kick against Greece that ties the game, 2-2. Following an unprecedented triple championship in the 1999 Manchester United season (the team wins the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League), Beckham is appointed captain of England's national team in Nov. 2000 and named BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 2001.
2002,April 09
Happy Feet
The English team captain breaks the second metatarsal bone in his left foot in a Manchester United game versus Spanish club Deportivo La Coruña. The injury jeopardizes Beckham's chance of playing in the summer's World Cup, causing a national hysteria. "Nothing is more important to England's arrangements for the World Cup than the state of David Beckham's foot," Time reports Prime Minister Blair saying during a cabinet meeting. Fortunately, he recovers in time to play for England. He redeems his 1998 mistakes with a redemptive win versus Argentina, but England is disqualified after losing to Brazil, who go on to win the 2002 World Cup.
November 2-3
Family Man
Five people are arrested after planning to kidnap wife Victoria and their two sons, Brooklyn and Romeo, for a $7.5 million ransom. Beckham issues a public statement: "The first role of a father and husband is to keep his family safe," and announces plans to improve security at the couple's $13 million, 24-acre mansion, known popularly as "Beckingham Palace." Charges against the suspects are later dropped due to an unreliable witness.
March 12
She Likes the Way He Moves
In Bend It Like Beckham, an English-Indian character's obsession with the British soccer star – whose decade-long Manchester Union career includes six English Premiership titles, two Football Association Challenge cups and one Champions League win – introduces him to American audiences.
July 01
Welcome to the Real World
Although Manchester United made Beckham the world's highest-paid footballer with a three-year, $22 million contract in 2002, he's acquired by rival club Real Madrid after a public rift with Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson. However, Beckham still plans to play for England's national team in international competitions. He undergoes a 90-minute physical in the capital that is televised around the world amidst a Spanish media frenzy.
Thank You, Queen Elizabeth
Wearing a black top hat and tails, Beckham receives an OBE (Order of the British Empire) from the Queen for "services to football" at Buckingham Palace. Although the iconic English superstar has recently been traded to Real Madrid in Spain, the BBC reports him saying, "[The award] is not just for me, but for Manchester United, England, all of my teammates and my family."
April 04
Becks Hit with Scandal
Britain's News of the World tabloid breaks the story that Beckham had an affair with his twentysomething former assistant, Rebecca Loos, and sent her sexually suggestive text messages. In an official statement, he calls the allegations "ludicrous," but more reports of naughty texts and affairs come out with at least six other women. Beckham and wife Victoria fight back, posing for photographs together while holding hands. "The simple truth is that I am very happily married, have a wonderful wife and two very special kids," he says in the statement.
June 02
Those Who Can, Teach
He announces plans to launch the David Beckham Academy in Carson, Calif, with first classes beginning in the spring of 2006. The center provides training sessions for boys and girls, using the same drills Beckham grew up with as a Manchester United trainee. Another Academy opens in London in November, with plans for an Asian institute in the works. "It's about giving kids an opportunity to go to a soccer academy like mine," he says in a press conference. "[If] it produces new stars, boys and girls, if it produces the new Mia Hamm, it's special and it's worked."
August 11
No Becks to Kick Around Anymore
Beckham is dropped from England's national team after playing 94 games with them, including three World Cups (1998, 2002, 2006) and a European Championship in 2000. "I know people said I should have seen it coming, but it was a total shock," he tells Britain's Daily Mirror. He resigned as England's captain in July after a disappointing World Cup game in Germany.
2007
January 11
Coming to America
Due to his reduced playing time with Real Madrid and to help Posh pursue her fashion ambitions, the Beckhams decide to move to L.A.. The soccer star signs a reported $250 million, five-year contract with the Los Angeles Galaxy, igniting a media storm. "We sold 5,000 season tickets in less than 48 hours," Tim Leiweke, a Galaxy executive, tells Sports Illustrated. "I can't believe what just happened here."
July 21
Star-Studded Receptions
Beckham makes his L.A. soccer debut as Katie Holmes, Eva Longoria and Mary-Kate Olsen show up to watch. The following night, Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes, and Will and Jada Pinkett Smith host a star-studded gala private party for the Beckhams at the Museum of Contemporary Art's Geffen Contemporary in downtown L.A.
August
Posh & Becks Do W
David and Posh appear on the cover of W with a set of steamy photos – just in time for their move to America. In the interview, they talk about their big move and their new home, while David reminisces about first meeting his wife in 1997. "I fancied her," but he was too reserved to make a move. "I'm quite shy. I sort of said hello and then just went back to Manchester," he says. "I was quite upset."
August 30
Stalling Beckham
Weeks after scoring his first goal as an L.A. Galaxy player, Beckham receives disappointing news that he will now be out for about six weeks with a sprained ligament in his knee. The midfielder, who previously nursed an injured ankle that cost him playing time, says, "It's disappointing and frustrating at the moment.
2008
Beckham Strips Down to Knickers
The soccer phenom lends his face (and abs!) to Emporio Armani, stripping down to his underwear. But his mum doesn't approve. "I had to try and explain it to her and it didn't go down that well," Beckham, 32, tells Jay Leno on the Tonight Show. Regardless, he strips down again in the spring.
2011
July 10
A Beckham Baby Girl
After announcing they're expecting a girl, David and Victoria welcome daughter Harper Seven to their brood of three boys. "Baby Harper is the most beautiful baby girl I have ever seen," Victoria Tweets of their baby girl. "I have fallen in love all over again!"
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