Britain's soccer superstar David Beckham once topped Winston Churchill as the face his countrymen wanted on their money. But in 2007, Beckham invaded America – with a Posh partner in tow!
While his skill on the field propelled him to the Manchester United Club, it is his marriage to Victoria "Posh" Adams of the Spice Girls that made him iconic. "Posh & Becks" ascended to royal status with three sons and a mansion dubbed "Beckingham Palace."
Beckham, who has scored deals with Adidas and Pepsi, has also faced several scandals: allegations of an affair; a kidnapping threat; and a controversial decision to play for rival Real Madrid. England's other royal family was primed to take over Hollywood with Beckham's Los Angeles Galaxy deal, but a knee injury sidelined the soccer star right when he was getting started.
Scout, You're It!(1986)
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.
Living the Dream(1991)
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.
Posh Meets Becks(1997)
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.
Ring Me(1998)
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.
The Most Hated Man in Britain
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."
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.
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.
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.
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