Leonardo DiCaprio got his Oscar after 23 years. King Charles was crowned after 70 years. And now David Beckham will finally get his knighthood. Good things come to those who wait – and how Beckham has waited.
It’s no secret that Goldenballs has been gasping for a knighthood for a long time, nor that the former England captain has worked tirelessly for one, but he’s not lacking in stamina or focus. As a teenager, he stayed behind on his own for hours after training to continue working on his technique. That attitude served him well in his epic quest for a knighthood.
Beckham was first put forward in 2011 after helping to secure the London 2012 Olympics. But he was given the cold shoulder after being caught up in an embarrassing tax story (he was subsequently cleared of involvement in an avoidance scheme). Rumour had it that another stumbling block was that Prince Philip was royally cheesed off that Posh and Becks had sat on gold thrones at their wedding.
Beckham put his foot in it again in 2017 when hacked emails suggested he had described the Honours Committee as ‘unappreciative cunts’ after another snub. ‘It’s a disgrace to be honest,’ he raged. His representatives said that the leaked emails had been doctored and taken out of context. But the fallout from the story was messy enough that he could have blown the whole thing there and then. Beckham, however, has always been good at bouncing back from adversity.
In 2022, he spent 12 hours queuing with the public to pay his respects at Queen Elizabeth’s coffin, as it lay in state in Westminster. He joined the line at 2 a.m. and continued to wear a sombre expression in the hours ahead, even seeming to wipe away tears at one point. Afterwards, he told the media he was a ‘huge royalist and a fan of the Royal Family’. Yeah, we get it, Becks.
Over the last two years, he’s given it 110 per cent, to borrow football parlance. He became an ambassador of the King’s Foundation, wore the King’s rose in his lapel, and declared that, just like the monarch, he was a big fan of horticulture. Who knew?
Last year, he asked King Charles for ‘bee-keeping tips’ when he met him at the Highgrove Estate in Gloucestershire. Beckham was turning up to so many royal events that he was either going to get a knighthood or a restraining order.
It’s hard to think Beckham will be satisfied with a knighthood for long
But fair play to Beckham; he’s an ambitious man and there are worse ambitions to have than wanting a knighthood. I’ve met him several times and seen his ambition up close. The first time was in 1997, at the launch of his Brylcreem endorsement. Wearing a football kit, he was splayed out over a reclining chair, surrounded by journalists and photographers. As we all stood staring at him, the scene felt predatory and frankly a touch erotic, but he was loving every minute of it.
I did my first one-to-one interview with him the following year, on the eve of the 1998 World Cup tournament. By now he was world famous and dating one of the Spice Girls, who he cooed baby talk to before the interview started. Everyone assumed he was going to be the star of the tournament.
But he seemed exhausted by the weight of the expectation. Just weeks later, in the knockout stages of the World Cup, he was sent off after lashing out at Argentina’s Diego Simeone. Reduced to ten men, England were knocked out. He returned home to abuse, death threats and an effigy of him hanging outside a London pub.
I interviewed him again in 2006 at his office in Madrid. By now he had an OBE under his belt; he seemed lighter and fresher than the previous time we met. His best years in the game were mostly behind him; he seemed focused ferociously on cementing his status as a national treasure with a knighthood.
His dream has finally come true, but where will he channel his restless ambition now? Well, next week, there’s the Order of the Garter procession at Windsor Castle, when royals wear grand robes and ostrich feathers to commemorate the Most Noble Order of the Garter, the most senior order of knighthood in the British honours system.
Recipients are chosen personally by the monarch to honour people who have contributed in a particular way to national life. It’s hard to think Beckham will be satisfied with a knighthood for long. Maybe his next target will be to become a Knight of the Garter. It would be a big ask but he’s already got one advantage: if anyone could look good wearing ostrich feathers, it’s Sir David Beckham.
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