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          Sir David Beckham: Highs and lows of England icon's career

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          Which famous football knighthoods has David Beckham joined? (1:21)

          Take a look at some of the other stars who have been knighted from the footballing world after David Beckham's knighthood. (1:21)

          • Anirudh Menon
          Nov 4, 2025, 10:37 AM ET

          As Sir David Beckham celebrated receiving his knighthood for services to sports and charity on Tuesday, ESPN takes a look back at his roller coaster of a career.

          Beckham had plenty of ups and ups and downs en route to earning 115 caps for England (59 as captain), winning several major trophies and starring for some of the biggest clubs in the world.

          - Sir David Beckham receives knighthood at Windsor Castle
          - Beckham knighthood: King Charles' Birthday Honours explained
          - Arise, Sir Becks! Beckham's remarkable career milestones

          The highs

          Bend it like Beckham

          Graduating from the "class of '92," Beckham slowly became a mainstay at Manchester United. It was on the opening day of the 1996-97 season, though, that he rose to national superstardom, when he scored against Wimbledon from inside his own half.

          The audacity of the attempt was as awesome as the skill needed to execute it, and when he completed it with an Eric Cantona-esque celebration (cheeky grin, arms outstretched) everyone watching knew they were witnessing the birth of something special.

          In the words of Beckham himself: "It changed my life. The ball seemed to be in the air for hours and it all went quiet. Then the ball went in, and it just erupted. I was on cloud nine."

          From talented footballer to global pop culture icon, this was where it all started.

          Winning everything

          Coming back from World Cup disaster (more on that later), Beckham was under the most intense pressure a modern English footballer has ever faced from the press and the public.

          But, he revelled in it, starring in United's treble winning 1998-99 season. He was everywhere that year, scoring an equaliser in United's must-win last league match against Tottenham, covering for Roy Keane and Paul Scholes' absence in central midfield in the Champions League final and taking the corners that gave the footballing world one of its most iconic finishes in that game.

          Arguably, he was United's most important player in that historic season. He finished second in the 1999 Balon d'Or and FIFA World Player of the Year rankings (Rivaldo won both awards).

          A hero's redemption

          Play the whole game back and you can see him miss a couple of chances from better range early on, but when England won a free kick in second half stoppage time, 35 yards out, in a must-at-least-draw World Cup qualifier against Greece while trailing 2-1, there was only one man who was going to take it.

          Beckham ushered Teddy Sheringham away as -- three years after the '98 World Cup debacle -- he stepped up, took his trademark curling run-up to the ball blasted it into the top left corner of the Greek goal. 2-2, and England were going to the 2002 World Cup in some style.

          Commentator Gary Bloom's words would turn prophetic more than two decades later: "David Beckham scores the goal to take England all the way to the World Cup finals. Give that man a knighthood!"

          The lows

          '10 heroic lions and one stupid boy'

          That was the headline in the Daily Mirror after 10-man England lost on penalties to great rivals Argentina in the round of 16 of the 1998 World Cup. The supposed "stupid boy" in question? David Beckham. He'd been sent off for what many saw as a petulant kick back at Argentine midfielder Deigo Simeone after a particularly heavy tackle and that, seemingly, had turned the tide of the match.

          The newspapers were vicious, and so were the fans. The Sun ran an image of a dartboard with the then 23-year-old Beckham's face at the centre, effigies were hung on lamp posts and burnt on the street, death threats were hand-delivered through the door of his home encased in envelopes that held bullets.

          As Sir Alex Ferguson wrote in his book 'Leading', "It wouldn't have surprised me if an immigration officer had refused him permission to re-enter Britain."

          That he had his most successful domestic season while this was going on speaks volumes of his character and the inner strength that made him who he was.

          Boot to the face

          After all the support Ferguson extended Beckham during that post World Cup phase, their relationship slowly started to deteriorate with the Manchester United manager seemingly not taking kindly to his star player's pop icon status.

          Things came to a head in February 2003, when a stray boot accidentally kicked by Ferguson clipped Beckham over his eye after an argument that followed an FA Cup loss to Arsenal.

          He was soon relegated to the bench -- from where he came on to memorably bag a brace in a loss against Real Madrid in the Champions League -- but it would be his last season at Old Trafford.

          That summer he was unveiled as Real Madrid's latest Galactico, a deal that sealed his global superstar status.

          Penalty miss at the Euros

          For someone who could make a dead ball sing, this would have rankled.

          Having matched Portugal blow for blow across 120 minutes in the quarterfinals of Euro 2004, England chose their captain to take the first penalty of the shootout.

          Beckham stepped up and skied one into the Lisbon air. For the leading free-kick expert of his generation, that was an astonishingly poor miss. This, and the quarterfinals of the World Cup two years previously, would be the closest he would come to glory with the England national team.