David Beckham was a damn good soccer player, but while playing he also became a smart and successful businessman who made hundreds of millions of dollars.
During his famous professional career, the English football great played for Manchester United, Real Madrid, and in half of his appearances in the ranks of the English national team, he was also its captain.
But it is significant that even after he hung up his football boots for good in 2013, he continued to develop his business. As Insider.com points out, he has made a name for himself and made a fortune in the business world.
Britain’s Sunday Times Rich List estimates that David Beckham and his wife, former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham, have a net worth of $514 million.
The England midfielder played for Manchester United for over two decades, then Real Madrid, LA Galaxy, AC Milan and Paris Saint-Germain before retiring in 2013.
Beckham played in three different World Cups and scored in all of them. But when he received a red card at the championship in 1998, he also got to know the other side of football. The fans turned against him dramatically and even threatened to kidnap his son because they blamed him for England’s elimination against Argentina.
According to the British Daily Mirror, by the time he retired from football, he had earned $800 million on and off the field. This made him the seventh highest paid athlete of all time at the time.
The vast majority of his income came from the salaries he received from top clubs. But Beckham was also able to cash in on the image he created when he became the face of the England national team. During his career, he concluded lucrative endorsement deals with the brands Armani, Gillette, PepsiCo and Adidas.
He earned well even after the end of his career
And after he ended his playing career, his portfolio grew even more. In 2014, a year after retiring from professional football, Beckham founded his own company, DB Ventures. The business handles most of Beckham’s post-football activities, including his endorsement of Adidas, the Tudor watch brand and his own Haig Club whiskey brand.
Watch with us now. Beckham was paid $12.1 million in dividends in 2016, $22.2 million in 2017, $13.2 million in 2018 and $17.2 million in 2019.
According to CNBC, in March 2022, Beckham sold 55% of DB Ventures to American brand company Authentic Brands Group, which owns Reebok, Juicy Couture and Elvis Presley brand rights, among others. According to the Times of London, Beckham received up to 230 million dollars from the sale.
Major MLS project Inter Miami
For a long time, Beckham had planned the MLS project Inter Miami, which he launched in 2018. When he first signed as a player with Major League Soccer’s LA Galaxy in 2007, he received an option to buy the expanded team for $25 million. In 2014, MLS announced that Beckham had taken up the option and would be opening a franchise in Miami with a group of other investors.
At least initially, it looks like a successful project. The team entered MLS in 2020 and has since signed a number of notable players, most notably seven-time Ballon d’Or winner Lionel Messi.
It all looks like Beckham’s masterpiece. In order to get Messi to Miami, he also convinced the famous Argentine coach Gerard Martin, whom the Argentine superstar knows from his time in Barcelona, to hire him. Inter Miami boasts $27 million in annual revenue, according to analyst firm Kona Equity. But… Inter Miami commercial director Xavier Asensi said in August that he expects Messi’s presence to quadruple the club’s revenue by 2024.
The face of the World Cup 2022 in Qatar
But all this is only part of Beckham’s activities. Last year, he agreed to be the face of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. It was not a short-term contract. According to the Evening Standard, Beckham signed a 10-year deal with Qatar that earned him a staggering $177 million.
At the same time, Beckham must have suspected that he was moving on the edge. Due to the human rights situation in the country, the famous celebrity came under the strict scrutiny of fans, journalists and human rights organizations. However, a year after the start of the WC, we can say that it did not harm him at all and did not diminish his popularity.
Another interesting business commodity of the Beckhams is art. Hard to say which came first. A love of art, or the knowledge that you can make a decent living doing it. Either way, David and Victoria boast an impressive art collection worth nearly $44 million, according to luxury lifestyle website Luxuo.
He also has Banksy at home
The main theme of the collection is “love” and includes paintings, portraits and sculptures by Damien Hirst (he became famous for his series of real animals – horses, cows… – loaded in formaldehyde), Tracey Eminová (the cycle “Don’t leave me” was also exhibited by Galerie Rudolfinum in autumn 2015 ) or the famous street artist Banksy.
In 2014, David paid a million dollars to friend Damien Hirst for a commissioned painting called “Daddy’s Girl” (it features a giant pink heart with colorful bow ties). You guessed it, it was a birthday present for daughter Harper for her room. Perhaps one of the most expensive gifts ever given by a loving father to his little girl.
Beckham also likes to buy various collectibles, including memorabilia from Elvis Presley’s life. You can guess if that’s true, but according to Men’s Health magazine in 2021, Beckham spends $46,000 a day on his “hobbies,” one of which includes buying Elvis memorabilia. These include numerous Elvis costumes and other related merchandise.
A $65,000 tattoo
Back in the day, Beckham fell in love with tattoos and it didn’t cost him much at all. According to Men’s Health, he has more than 67 tattoos that cover both of his arms, part of his neck, back, chest, ribs, and even his hands and fingers. However, compared to the price of a painting by Hirst, he paid a lot for it – reportedly $65,000.
If we write that he also has an impressive collection of cars, it will be almost boring. According to an estimate by The Sun newspaper, he paid about three million dollars for the Lamborghini Gallardo, Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead, Bentley Bentayga and Aston Martin V8 Vantage X-Pack Volante and other beautiful “vehicles”. As reported by GQ magazine, a few motorcycles must also be added to this, including the Super Vintage Knuckle, Triumph Scrambler and Ducati Desmosedici RR.
Incidentally, the car became a funny interlude in the Netflix series “Beckham”, where David had to remind his wife Victoria that the Rolls-Royce her dad used to drive her in was definitely not a typical “working class” car.
Expensive houses, apartments and a yacht
And then, of course, there are a few luxury properties that the Beckhams have in various parts of the world. According to Hello magazine, their real estate portfolio is worth $88 million.
The most expensive is said to be their London townhouse for $37 million in the exclusive Holland Park area. It has seven bedrooms, its own gym and a huge wine cellar.
Then there’s the luxury penthouse (luxury high-rise apartment on the top floor) in Miami, Florida, which boasts floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Biscayne Bay, the Atlantic, and the city skyline. And also a “weekend cottage”, or rather a farm in the Cotswolds in South West England, plus a luxury yacht and two different houses in Dubai.
According to Hello, Beckham owns a five million dollar apartment in the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. Their other property in Dubai is a villa in Palm Jumeirah, which they reportedly bought for $1.5 million in 2002, but is now thought to be worth more than nine million.
What does the Beckhams vacation look like?
Last summer, David and his family and friends stayed in Saint-Tropez. They stayed overnight on board the luxury yacht, but in the evening they arrived for dinner at the local luxury restaurants. One night, the group visited a karaoke bar, where Victoria sang a rendition of the Spice Girls hit “Stop”, which she released with the group in 1998.
And since both David and Vicky love fashion, they can’t often miss the capital of fashion, Paris, where they visit the major department stores there.
To be fair, we have to point out that the Beckhams don’t just spend on all kinds of luxuries, they also give a lot of money to charity. For example, David was a UNICEF ambassador for more than 17 years. In March 2022, after the start of the Russian invasion, he and Victoria donated over one million dollars to help Ukraine.
And children?
It also supports charities such as the Red Cross, Help for Heroes, WildAid, Save the Children or Malaria No More.
David and Victoria Beckham are very family-oriented, as the current Netflix series has emphasized. “Family is what motivates me. I am determined to constantly prove to my children how hard they have to work to be successful, to have a career and to believe in themselves,” said David some time ago.
The oldest Brooklyn married the American actress Nicola Peltz last year after his 23rd birthday. The second oldest child, 21-year-old Romeo, is following in his father’s footsteps as a footballer for Brentford, and eighteen-year-old Cruz (18) is an aspiring musician. The only daughter, 12-year-old Harper, is studying at the artsy London Stage School, a theater school focusing on musical theatre, commercial jazz and IDTA (International Dance Teachers Association) exams.
