United Kingdom: What made Beckham different

last updated 8 January 2015

Carolyn Hitt

The Western Mail

David Beckham will be remembered not as England’s greatest soccer player, said Carolyn Hitt, but as one of England’s greatest brands. As he “bid a blubbing farewell to his 22-year career” last week, retiring from the sport after helping Paris St.-Germain win its first league championship in almost two decades, no one doubted that he’d remain a superstar. That’s because he “is worshipped as an icon by people with absolutely no knowledge of sport.” For all those who revere him for that bendy kick that saved England’s World Cup qualifier in 2001, there are more who love the way he looks while hawking pants on a billboard. With his androgynous embrace of the “metrosexual” look, Beckham “transformed the grooming habits of an entire generation of men.” And his marriage to the “media-savvy” Posh Spice of the Spice Girls certainly helped Beckham become Britain’s richest athlete, with a fortune of $250 million, most of it earned off the field. Still, you “can’t get by on style if there’s no content.” Becks won league titles with some of the world’s top clubs, including Manchester United, Real Madrid, and AC Milan. And through it all, he was unfailingly classy and polite. Sure, he was “soccer plus sex”—but he was also “a decent bloke.”