David Robert Joseph Beckham

About David Robert Joseph Beckham

David Beckham's name became famous far beyond football, but the career underneath the celebrity was built on one repeatable skill: the way he struck a dead ball. Born in May 1975, the English right midfielder came through at Manchester United, where his professional record starts in September 1992. Old Trafford was his home for close to eleven years, until June 2003, and it was there that the crosses from the right flank and the bending free-kicks became his signature. United is the longest stop on his grid by a distance, and the one that turned a London-born youngster into a household name.

In July 2003 he moved abroad for the first time, joining Real Madrid and becoming one of the figures in the club's era of Galácticos, the policy of gathering global stars in a single squad. The Madrid chapter lasted four years, until June 2007, and it gave him a La Liga title on the way to a unique record: the hints stored for him note that he is the only English player to win league titles in four different countries, England, Spain, the United States and France.

The third country arrived in July 2007, when he joined LA Galaxy in Major League Soccer. The move was a landmark for the American league, and his time in Los Angeles ran until the end of 2012. Yet the grid shows that he never fully stepped away from Europe during those years. He spent the first half of 2009 at AC Milan, and returned to Milan for the first half of 2010, two short Italian spells squeezed between MLS seasons that kept him close to the elite game and to his international ambitions.

That international story is substantial. He captained England for six years and won 115 caps, and one of his fun facts marks a particular milestone: he was the first English player to score at three different FIFA World Cups. Penalty-box finishing was never his job, which makes that record more telling.

His last stop came in January 2013 at Paris Saint-Germain, a brief spell that ended in May 2013 and closed his career in France. Even that cameo carried a gesture: he donated his entire salary from the club to a local children's charity. The recorded totals across his career are 718 appearances, 127 goals and 258 assists, an assist count that fits a specialist in delivery. Known as Becks or Golden Balls, married to former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham and open about living with obsessive-compulsive disorder, he remains one of the most recognisable English footballers of all time, but the grid tells the footballing story: Manchester, Madrid, Los Angeles, Milan and Paris.