David Beckham career highlights: from legendary footballer to Qatar World Cup controversy

David Beckham has been at the centre of a number of headlines surrounding the controversial World Cup in Qatar as of late. Many have been criticising his role as ambassador for the competition due to the allegations of human rights violations during the building process of the World Cup stadium as well as Qatar’s laws against the LGBTQ+ community.

Beckham has been a part of pop culture since the early nineties with a career that has spanned decades many are wondering what the former footballer could do next. There have been rumours David Beckham is in talks to join the board that may take over his former team Manchester United.

Beckham has a reported net worth of £370 million, and the Glazers are reportedly hoping to sell the club for £6-7 billion, so he wouldn’t be able to buy them on his own. However, Britain’s richest man Sir Jim Ratcliffe has already revealed his interest in buying the Red Devils and Beckham would be a valuable asset to any consortium. According to the Financial Times, Beckham is open to talks.

This is no surprise given he has a close relationship with the club after spending nearly a decade in the first team at Old Trafford. During his career with the club he won six Premier League titles, two FA Cups and the Champions League as well as contributed 85 goals and 109 assists in 388 matches under Sir Alex Ferguson’s reign.

David Beckham continues to be associated with the club long after he left for Real Madrid in 2003, and even in the present day long after his retirement. Beckham spoke on the current state of Man United in May 2022 saying: said: "There are changes to be made and changes that are happening. There’s not many teams to have gone through what they’ve gone through in the past few years and still [be] filling out their stadium."

The move for David Beckham would be another cornerstone to cement a career that has spanned decades. So, what other highs and lows has David Beckham endured in his career and what could be next? PeopleWorld takes a look at his career thus far.

Debut for the England team

Beckham made his debut for the England international team on September 1, 1996 playing a winning match against Moldova to qualify for the World Cup.

England Eliminated from 1998 World Cup

One of the lowest points of Beckham’s professional football career came on June 30 at the 1998 World Cup. During a game against Argentina in the round of 16 part of the competition Beck was founded by Diego Simeone. Beckham retaliated and received a red card. The England team lost the match in penalties and Beckham went on to receive the brunt of the blame from fans.

Queuing to see the Queen lying in state 2022

David Beckham made headlines in September when he was spotted in the queue to see the Queen lying-in-state. Millions of people travelled from around the world to pay their respects to the monarch, and were pleasantly surprised to see Beckham waiting in line like everyone else.

At its longest the queue wait time was longer than 24 hours with the queue reaching over 10 miles long. Beckham joined at the point people were waiting for 13 hours and did just that.

Qatar Money

David Beckham has come under fire as he penned a deal with Qatar to be their ambassador, and is reportedly receiving a £10 million payday for the role. Homosexuality is illegal in the gulf state, and Beckham has previously been viewed as LGBT+ ally.

The former Man United midfielder is said to receive over £150 million across ten years working with Qatar. The most notable criticism has come from comedian Joe Lycett who posted a video to Instagram on November 13 threatening to shred 10,000 pounds if Beckham did not quit the role.

While it looked like Joe Lycett made good on his promise when he released a video of himself shredding what looked to be £10,000, the comedian later revealed the money was fake. In the video confirming the money was fake, the comedian pulled out David Beckham’s cover of Attitude Magazine, from 2002 which marked the first ever cover of a gay magazine with a Premier League footballer on it, and proceeded to shred it. He clarified that he’d asked Attitude for permission and they were “more than happy to oblige”.