David Beckham

Fred the devil is the Manchester United mascot (www.levenshulme.com/ lights/2000/)

David Beckham was on born May 2nd, 1975 in the town of Leytonstone in England. At the age of 11 he won the Bobby Charlton Soccer Skills Award. The prize that went with the award was a trip to Old Trafford and a two-week trip to be trained with Terry Venables at the Nou Camp in Barcelona. When he was finished, he would go to every Manchester United game. The next year he became the team’s mascot.

David Beckham with his first club (www.publispain.com/ beckham/screensavers.htm)

On the 8th of July, 1991, he signed up with the club of Manchester United to be a trainee. He made the senior soccer team on September 23rd, 1992. That wasn’t the big club team. He became a professional player four months after he made the senior team. The first big game that he played was on September 21st, 1994, against Port Vale in the League Cup. In the 1994-95 season, David played for two different teams in two different divisions. He only played five matches during the season, but he did score two goals. He stayed with his Preston team for a little while, and he was recalled by the Manchester United Club to play in the Premiership against Leeds on April 2nd, 1995.

The team with the FA Cup (news.bbc.co.uk/.../ jpg/_40185089_team300.jpg)

In the 1995-96 season, the first game that David played he scored his first goal in the Premiership League, but the Manchester United team was defeated by Aston Villa. After the game, Alan Hansen said, "YOU CAN’T WIN ANYTHING WITH KIDS." But the team soon showed Alan that they weren’t losers and David completed eight goals that season. Also, the team won the Premiership and then they won the FA Cup. David took the position of midfield after the departure of Andrei Kanchelskis.

David Beckham celebrates after he scored a goal (fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/.../ 2002/eng.html?i=7&d=1)

The 1996-1997 season is the season that David put his name for a start in the celebrity world. He scored in the Charity Shield match and he defeated Newcastle, and made the goal of the season against Wimbledon. The goal was made from the half-way across the soccer field. He represented England in the Under 21 level in the World Cup of 1998 against the qualification match of Moldova. He was the first player to have started every qualification match for France in 1998. He ended the season beating Manchester United and he got voted by his teammates for the PFA Young Player of the Year. He finished second in the Player of the Year voting.

David is playing with his new club Real Madrid (www.lequipe.fr/Football/ C1_20032004_Retour_Re...)

The next season wasn’t what David thought he would like to remember. The season was hard because Manchester United was knocked out of the Champions League by the Monaco team. They also lost the Premiership title to Arsenal by one point. At the World Cup of France in 1998, he was left out of the first line to be played. Four days later during the World Cup, he was red carded after aiming a kick at Argentina’s Diego Simone. He was kicked out of the game. It was his first send-off of his professional career.

The 1998-1999 season was David’s best season. Manchester United was in good form and they won the Premiership title and the FA Cup. They also won The European Cup against Bayern Munich. During the season, David got married to Victoria (Posh) Adams of the Spice Girls. And in March 1999 he had a son that they named Brooklyn.

The next season was a different season. Manchester United won the 1999-2000 season Premiership Title but they lost against Real Madrid for the European Cup. David was rapidly becoming the number one celebrity in the press. He became second to Rivaldo for the World, European Player of the Year and the BBC Sports Personality of the Year.

During the 2000-2001 season, David rose to new heights because of the arrival of New England Manager Sven Goran Eriksson. David took the new role of the England Captain, which gave the national team a fresh start. David scored a goal that sent the England team to the World Cup Finals in Korea/Japan. Not everything went as they planned. David broke his toe bone and he didn’t know if it would be healed by the finals games. The toe healed just in time for the quarter-finals, but they got defeated by the champions, Brazil.

After the World Cup in Korea/Japan, David was a sporting celebrity. In the eyes of Alex Ferguson, he lost favour because of his "celebrity factor." David continued playing 110%, but the United manager was not very impressed that he was more interested in his lifestyle than his team and his teammates. That’s why he was on the bench against Real Madrid in the Champions League. After the benched game, there was an incident in the players room. David was hit in the face by a boot kicked by Alex Ferguson.

In 2003, Manchester United won the 2003 Premiership Title. But rumors from the press suggested that a possible transfer would take place with David. In June, David had a promotional tour in the United States. Joan Laporta, candidate for the presidential in Barcelona, announced that he would sign David on the Real Madrid team if he was elected. To their surprise, Manchester United agreed to sell David. David took this time to sign a four-year contract with the Real Madrid for a fee of 25 pounds (41 million dollars US).

How good do you really think he is, you ask? He has tendency to score goals from a very, very long distance. He can make a goal 57 yards away from the net. Not Even an NFL kicker can kick a ball that far. But David is the only one that can score a goal with a smaller ball then a football and with a goaltender in the nets.

Outside of his soccer games, David has an endorsement with Adidas for life for $160 million dollars, and other companies like PepsiCo, Vodafone, Marks & Spencers, and Siemens. With all of these endorsements, he’s been in the spotlight. But sometimes David wishes that he wasn’t so famous because someone attempted to kidnap his son. This is one of the times that you don’t want to be famous.