David Beckham turns 50 on May 2.
Here, the PA news agency looks at the key statistics from the former England captain’s career.
England record
– Beckham won 115 England caps, the third-most of all time for the men’s team and second among outfield players. Wayne Rooney won 120 caps and goalkeeper Peter Shilton a record 125.
– He scored 17 international goals. He became the first, and remains the only, Englishman to score at three different World Cups, from 1998 to 2006.
– Beckham captained England on 59 occasions, a total exceeded by only four men including current skipper Harry Kane.
Manchester United
– Beckham’s club career is most closely associated with his boyhood club, for whom he made 394 appearances and scored 85 goals in all competitions.
– He won six Premier League titles, two FA Cups and the 1998-99 Champions League – and Treble – with the club.
– Beckham’s 18 direct free-kick goals and five in the 2000-01 season are both Premier League records, the latter shared with former Newcastle winger Laurent Robert. His 62 Premier League goals include his famous strike from the halfway line against Wimbledon, voted in 2002 as the competition’s goal of the decade.
– He led the league in assists in both 1997-98 and 2000-01 and jointly with Newcastle’s Nolberto Solano in 1999-00. His 80 assists rank 11th in the Premier League era.
– While with the club, he finished second in the 1999 Ballon d’Or voting behind Barcelona and Brazil star Rivaldo and was named BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 2001.
America
– Beckham was Major League Soccer’s first ‘Designated Player’ when he joined the Los Angeles Galaxy in 2003 on an annual salary of 6.5 million US dollars. The designated player rule became informally known as the “Beckham Rule”.
– In six seasons with the Galaxy he made 118 appearances and scored 20 goals, his best MLS season tally being seven in 2012. His side were MLS champions in 2011 and 2012.
– Beckham’s MLS contract included an option to buy a future expansion team, which he exercised in 2014. His team, Inter Miami, entered the league in 2020 and won the 2023 Leagues Cup and the 2024 Supporters’ Shield, after finishing top of the Eastern Conference with the best record in MLS. Their highest-profile designated player, Lionel Messi, is their record scorer with 41 goals.
Europe
– Beckham left United for Real Madrid in 2003, playing four seasons in Spain and winning the LaLiga title in 2006-07.
– He returned to European football towards the end of his career, with two spells on loan at AC Milan from the Galaxy before joining Paris St Germain. His 2012-13 Ligue 1 title with PSG made him the first Englishman to win league titles in four countries.
– He was inducted into Milan’s hall of fame despite never being permanently registered to the club. He made only 33 appearances, scoring twice.
