Manchester United

Beckham was brought onto the main Manchester United team from the youth league after three of the first-team players left in 1995. The manager at the time, Alex Furgeson brought in top players from the youth league instead of buying players from other clubs. Beckham started to gain notoriety during his first two seasons on the team. He was named PFA Young Player of the Year in 1998.

While Beckham played in all of England’s qualifying matches for the 1998 World Cup, he didn’t play in any of the first round matches.

During the 1998-99 season, Beckham was part of the United squad that won the Treble—The Premier League, The FA Cup and The Champions League. Beckham was still facing abuse by fans and the press during this season despite playing a critical role in winning key games in The Premier League and The Champions League.

During the 1999-00 season, Beckham was under continued criticism by the press and fans despite all his achievements. The press sometimes suggested that his wife might be having a negative influence on his performance. Beckham’s relationship with the team manager, Alex Ferguson, started to deteriorate during this time when Beckham got himself excused from practice to look after his son. Ferguson fined Beckham after he saw photos of Victoria Beckham at a fashion show the day that David took off practice. Ferguson claimed that Beckham would have been able to train that day if Victoria had looked after their son.

Many people thought that all the abuse Beckham was coming under would cause him to leave United. He did however start to win fans back to his side with his performances during matches. One match in which England supporters taunted him throughout the match, Beckham flipped off the hecklers. While the gesture did attract some criticism, newspapers which had vilified him before asked their readers to lighten up on him.

Beckham became captain of the England national team during the 2000-01 season. He also eventually won back the fans during the final England qualifying match for the 2002 world cup. England needed to either win or draw this match against Greece to qualify. England was losing 2-1 to Greece but when a teammate was fouled close to the Greek goal, Beckham took the free kick and scored with his trademark curling strike. Afterwards Beckham was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year for 2001.

In the 2002 season, Beckham broke the second metatarsal bone in his foot in a game against Deportivo La Coruna. This injury prevented him from playing the rest of the season. He was partially fit to play for England during the 2002 World Cup; however England was eventually knocked out by Brazil. Beckham was injured again during the early part of the 2002-03 season and was unable to regain his place on United.

Real Madrid

Beckham was finally sold by Manchester United in 2003. He signed a four-year contract with Real Madrid worth an estimated €35 million. Speculations on Real Madrid’s desire to sign Beckham to the team had to do with Beckham merchandising opportunities. Real Madrid shirts bearing his name sold out the day Beckham’s transfer to the team was completed. However with his transfer to Real Madrid, he was no longer able to wear his #7 jersey and switched to #23.

While Beckham performed well in his first season with real Madrid, the team did not and ended up being knocked out of the UFEA Champions League during the quarter Final stage. Despite the team’s performance, Beckham was instantly a favorite among the fans.

Beckham still played for the England National team while signed with Real Madrid

In October 2005, Beckham was sent off while playing for England in a friendly match against Austria. This made him the first ever Captain to be sent off as well as the only player to ever be sent off twice while playing for England. Shortly after this, Beckham was sent off again while playing against Valencia CT. He received a yellow card, made sarcastic applause towards the ref, and then was sent off with another yellow card. This suspension was later appealed, but he was sent off a third time in the season during a game against Getafe.

During the 2006 World cup in which Beckham played for England, the team started off the world cup with several slow paced matches. Beckham was named Man-of-the-Match in England game against Trinidad, for his two assist which led to the 2-0 England victory.

Later in the quarter final stages of the World cup, Beckham was injured in England’s game against Portugal. England went on to lose the game in penalty kicks. The next day a very emotional Beckham stepped down from his position as team captain, after which he was dropped from the National team completely.

Real Madrid won their first Spanish La Liga title in 3 years in Beckham’s final season with the team. Beckham did not play as much as he usually did due to the fact that his midfielder position was usually filled by Jose Antonio Reyes. In January 2007 Beckham announced that he had signed a five year deal with the LA Galaxy. The deal is supposedly worth up to $250 million over the five years. After his performance for real Madrid, Beckham was drafted back onto the England national team. He played several games for England before making his move to LA to play for the Galaxy, however he has still expressed that he will continue playing for England national.