02-05-2025
David Beckham at 50: Despite the scandals, nothing can tarnish his reputation
Last week, Pepsi released its latest advert featuring a leather-jacket-clad global icon who nonchalantly mounts a motorcycle and roars off into the distance. That famous biker? Not some twentysomething Gen Z star, but former England footballer David Beckham, who on Friday celebrates his 50th birthday.
It's testament to Beckham's extraordinary career longevity and unusual international reach, not to mention the fact that his brand is seemingly Teflon. Despite some major reputational blows, from the 1998 World Cup sending off and Rebecca Loos's 2004 claims of an extramarital affair to controversy over the Qatar-hosted 2022 World Cup, Golden Balls is entering his golden years more professionally successful and adored than ever.
A video posted by his wife Victoria on Thursday night showed the pair dancing together apparently without a care in the world – and it's easy to see why.
Last year Beckham's holding company, DRJB Holdings, approved $124 million (£99 million) of dividend payouts, with Beckham entitled to $35 million (£28 million). He's also the co-owner of Inter Miami football club and his business empire includes production company Studio 99, which made the 2023 Netflix documentary Beckham. Not bad for a man who was once ridiculed as the quintessential dumb footballer.
Rachel Richardson, who writes the culture and trends newsletter Highly Flammable, says: 'If you remember back to the peak of Beckham mania in the late 1990s, Manchester United won the treble, David married Victoria, and the Bend It Like Beckham movie came out, all in the span of five years. For most celebrities that would be the peak and then it's all downhill. But he and Victoria have sustained enormous interest decades on.'
