David Beckham

The British footballer David Robert Joseph Beckham was born May 2, 1975 in the London suburb of Leytonstone, where, in 1969, his parents moved from Hoxton, an employee of the gas company and frustrated footballer David Beckham and Edward Ted hairdresser Sandra West, with which, moreover, have two daughters, Lynne (1972) and Joanne (1982).

Passion for soccer

Since David started walking, his father transmitted his two great passions: football and Manchester United, who at the time was a rather mediocre team, it did not win a league title since 1975. At eight years old David started playing in the neighborhood team, Ridgeway Rovers, with whom he scored a hundred goals in three seasons.

At eleven, his life took a radical turn after winning at Old Trafford, the famous soccer skills competition that organized the legendary Sir Bobby Charlton. Not only won the trophy, the prize was to participate for two weeks in training with the promises of the farmhouse of FC Barcelona, but broke the record of points of the contest. That day, he and his father conspired if it was not to return to the Barça-Manchester United legendary turf.

That euphoria vanished suddenly when Beckham landed in the FC Barcelona ("Someday I will return to Barca," he shouted angrily at his bachelor Barcelona), and after being rejected in the tests carried out by two capital city teams more renowned that of his neighborhood: Tottenham Hotspur and, more surprisingly, the modest Leyton Orient.

Although disappointed, David did not give up and played in Leytonstone, while perfecting his technique in Essex School, unaware that, after the competition, scouts from Manchester United followed their steps in order the coach himself, Alex Ferguson, who the July 1, 1991 signed him personally for the lower grades.

In Manchester there stayed in the club, but in foster homes. The first two experiences were disastrous, until ended up in the home of Kay, Annie and Tommy lords, with whom he lived more than two years and who considered their second parents.

When he was settled, his dreams began to come true in 1992, when with Beckham emerged the best batch of the history of Manchester, with names like Micky Butt, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and the Neville brothers, in a youth team that not only he won, but gave a new style of play anchored British football.

They were young sixteen and seventeen years who Ferguson was in the stands, until they won the Youth Cup against Crystal Palace in late 1992. Then began to take shape in his mind the legend of the babes Fergie (in a clear parallel with the legendary Busby Babes led by Charlton who conquered Europe in the fifties), which, led by Frenchman Eric Cantona and Giggs for very young, he had already made the leap to the first team, win a new league title to Manchester in the 1992-1993 season.

Beckham made his debut with the first team on September 23, 1992 in a Cup match against Brighton. From that day he trained with the elderly, but did not play in the league because Manchester was working perfectly. I had to wait until the 1994-1995 season, in which he scored his first goal on December 7, 1994 in his debut in the Champions League against Galatasaray, when he had not yet made his debut in the Premier League. David, who since January 23, 1993 had signed his first professional contract, became impatient. Moreover, when asked if Ferguson, for the 1994-1995 season, accept an assignment to modest Preston, of the Third Division, with whom he played five matches and scored two goals.

An idol for Manchester United

In the meridian of the League Manchester midfield he was depleted by injury and Ferguson finally resorted to Beckham, who made his debut in the Premier League on April 2, 1995, against Leeds United. That season the Manchester Beckham was runner-up and only played four games.

In 1995-1996 it was already well established in the first team, with whom he played thirty-three games and scored seven goals, demonstrating as it was the best centering the world and one of the players most treasured in launching technical fouls. These qualities did not go unnoticed, and September 1, 1996 debuted with the national team, with which he has played more than fifty games and is captain since 1999. He continued playing for Manchester, which soon became the leader indisputable, with an average of thirty-three games per season and an average of eight goals, most of them in master free-kicks.

In his resume includes six league titles, one Champions League and Intercontinental Cup (1999) and two FA Cups (1996 and 1997), apart from other minor trophies. Personally holds many awards, but never been able to win the Golden Ball: Player of the Month League and Young Player of the Year (1996), again Young Player of the Year and Sir Matt Busby (1997), European Midfielder of the Year European Silver Ball and behind Rivaldo (1999), Best British sportsman of the year and again Silver Ball behind Figo (2001) and Bronze Ball behind Ronaldo and Zidane (2002). Moreover, in November 2003 he was appointed Knight of the Order of the British Empire.

An explosive marriage

His marriage in 1997 to former Spice Girl Victoria Adams multiplied the appeal of football to commercial firms and the media. Everything he touches turns into dollars, which is the currency charged. During his years at Manchester, including record and atypical revenues it earned an average of 15 million per year. He is ready for anything, it has to come to sing in one of the discs of his wife, in the song Out of your mind.

The singer seemed to have cornered much of its race to become the mistress of her husband and projection of Beckingham Palace, is known as the Beckham's mansion and where, until David joined Real Madrid, often celebrated parties in his image and likeness, with the presence of stalwarts like Elton John and Joan Collins.

Victoria has two sons: Brooklyn (March 5, 1999), so called because it was conceived in this famous New York district, and Romeo (September 1, 2002), in homage to Shakespeare.

The couple's fame however comes at a price: in 2000 tried to kidnap her firstborn. So he had to surround himself with extreme security measures. Apart from this, the Spice Boy or Becky, two of its nicknames that have greater fortune, has received other threats, even death, as when in the 1998 World Cup was expelled for childish and England were eliminated by Argentina.

Beckham is all business, so surely signed him in June 2003, Florentino Perez, who for the position already had Figo also taking it to the new president of FC Barcelona, Joan Laporta, who had promised his move to Barcelona fans in his election campaign. Real Madrid, which acquired for 35 million euros and an annual record of 6.5 million, should you deliver 50% of their contracts of image.

Beckham's arrival at Madrid was quite an event. He arrived at Torrejon de Ardoz private jet and mobilized thousands of fans who wanted to approach his new idol. A smell of crowds that few repeated later during the Asian tour of the white team.

Beckham is a neat freak man. It is obsessed with order and dresses at home so that the colors of clothing in tune with the color of the room in question and furniture. He takes tattooed the names of his wife and children and continuously changing look. And so he has dared to sarongs, headbands and diamonds, something that seemed reserved for women.

She loves cars, especially Ferrari and Bentley, and is an accomplished practitioner of golf and movie lover; in fact it is the idol of the protagonist in the film Bend It Like Beckham, the story of a young Indian origin passing thousand difficulties to fulfill their football dreams.