DAVID BECKHAM
Married a Spice Girl. (AP)
LONDON — David Beckham is retiring from soccer, ending a career in which he transcended the sport with forays into fashion and a marriage to a pop star that made him a global celebrity.
The 38-year-old former England captain, who recently won a league title in a fourth country with Paris Saint-Germain, said yesterday he will quit after the season.
“It’s a good way to go out,” Beckham said in Paris. “It’s every athlete’s dream, every footballer’s dream to go out on the top — on top form or winning a trophy … leaving as a champion.”
Beckham, whose curling free kicks and pinpoint crosses became his signature as a player, has two more matches left at PSG — against Brest on Saturday and at Lorient on May 26. He has been giving his salary to a children’s charity.
Asked what led to his decision, Beckham replied with a laugh: “Probably when [Lionel] Messi was running past me in that home game,” referring to PSG’s Champions League match against Barcelona last month.
Beckham started his career with Manchester United and also played for Real Madrid and the Los Angeles Galaxy, winning titles with all those clubs. He played on loan with AC Milan and made 115 appearances for his country, a record in England for someone other than a goalkeeper.
FIFA President Sepp Blatter described the midfielder as “one of the most iconic figures in global football.”
Beckham was immortalized with the 2002 movie “Bend it Like Beckham,” which told the story of a British teenage girl of south Asian heritage struggling with family pressures and cultural expectations to play the sport she loves.
Beckham’s fame went beyond the game. Guided by his wife, former Spice Girl Victoria Adams, the dashing Beckham was known as much for his fashion as his feet. In 2002, Salon dubbed him “the biggest metrosexual in Britain.”