As perhaps the most famous footballer on the planet,David Beckham should need no introduction.As famous for his pop star wife,his ever changing hairstyles and his multimillion pound endorsement deals with major worldwide companies such as Adidas and Gillette as he is for his football,David Beckham truly transcended the boundaries between football as a sport and as a promotional tool for the larger Beckham celebrity brand.
As a player he burst onto the scene as a fresh faced goalscoring midfielder at Manchester United in the mid 1990s and became the poster boy for that generation of talent nurtured by Sir Alex Ferguson at Old Trafford which dominated English club football throughout the 1990s.
A dead ball specialist,Beckham was never blessed with great pace however his fantastic passing and crossing ability from wide areas and a high work ethic made him one of European football's hottest properties on the way to collecting numerous English Premiership and FA Cup titles as well as the European Cup in 1999 as part of Manchester United's legendary treble winning side.
As his notoriety increased after his sending off in the World Cup in 1998 Beckham's career continued to rise to make him England captain and second only to Rivaldo as European Footballer of the Year in 1999.As Beckham's off field fame grew,his relationship with mentor Sir Alex Ferguson deteriorated culminating in the infamous boot kicking incident in the Manchester United dressing room which saw Beckham sporting a cut head.The relationship between the two never recovered and Beckham eventually moved to Real Madrid in the summer of 2003.
At Madrid the Beckham commercial machine went into overdrive as the most recognisable face in world football cashed in on his now worldwide appeal as a member of Real Madrid's "galactico" collection.
For England,Beckham scored in three separate World Cups and captained his country for six years,playing 94 times and scoring 17 international goals.
Beckham announced in January 2007 that he wouldn't be renewing his contract at Real Madrid and had signed a five year deal with Los Angeles Galaxy in Major League Soccer effective from July 2007 and worth a reputed £128 / $250 million.
His arrival at LA Galaxy in July 2007 saw a media frenzy as the US press and public rushed to catch a glimpse of the new "saviour" of Major League Soccer.