Every successful person has moments when things go awfully wrong then are made worse by how public they are. For former soccer star David Beckham, one such moment was in 1998 when he was issued a red card and ejected from a World Cup game where he represented England against Argentina.
“It pushed me into a place where I then had to grow up as a person and a player and become stronger,” Beckham told a crowd of more than 700 on Oct. 13 at the Long Island Association’s first in-person annual fall luncheon event since 1999.
Beckham won league titles in England, Spain, the United States and France in a 20-year career with Manchester United, Real Madrid, AC Milan, Los Angeles Galaxy, Paris Saint-Germain and the English team, where he was captain for six years.
He has been a UNICEF goodwill ambassador since 2015 and got UNICEF to launch a separate Beckham fund in 2015, a rarity for the group. In 2018, he helped launch and became president of Major League Soccer club Inter Miami CF. His life story has been among the top-ranked shows on Netflix.
So is David Beckham back? Ten years after retiring from soccer, Beckham brought his British accent to the Crest Hollow Country Club in Woodbury. Billed as an athlete, celebrity, businessman and philanthropist, Beckham is something else as well: a brand.
“The LIA has a history of having political figures as well as sports stars speak at our luncheons,” LIA CEO Matt Cohen said. “David Beckham … transcends the sport.”
Sands Resorts, for whom Beckham is a brand ambassador, helped arrange the visit, as it seeks to move ahead with the $4 billion Sands New York casino around the Nassau Coliseum. But Beckham talked about big moments, longevity, career and overcoming obstacles.
Although athletes might seem unusual speakers for a business group, they often get top-billing at this event, including Derek Jeter and Eli and Peyton Manning.
While Beckham means many things, business is certainly one of them. He appeared at Roosevelt Field Mall days earlier, promoting the new David Beckham eau de parfum collection.
“Strategic partnerships are a key part of our reinvigorated customer strategy,”Michelle Wlazlo, JCPenney’s chief merchandising officer, said before that event.
Beckham has gone beyond the pitch (soccer field) to pitch brand(s) and beliefs, praising family, fashion, and fervor for what you do.
While he is a celebrity, married to Victoria “Posh Spice” Beckham, he says his fame and fortune all came from his passion for sport. “My dream was to become a professional footballer,” he said. “It wasn’t to be famous. It wasn’t to be rich.”
An “East London boy,” he became a Manchester United fan early.
He moved to Manchester and by 16 was part of the Manchester United youth program, before playing on the team. He talks about a 1996 goal scored from around midfield when the goalie stepped forward as a key event; he was 21.
“It was a moment when people started to talk about my career globally,” he said. “I was able to score a goal like that. It opened so many different avenues.”
He said his manager, Alex Ferguson, protected him from the ensuing onslaught of attention. “The first thing he said when I came off the pitch was, ‘Do not speak with the media and get on the bus,’” Beckham said. “He was like my dad. My dad was tough on me even when I was growing up. He took on that kind of father-figure thing.”
Beckham played on, winning in numerous leagues and becoming among the world’s most famous athletes, while promoting products and fashion along the way. His marriage to Victoria further catapulted him into celebrity. He talks about his last game, where he broke down in tears, as a tough moment, but at the right time.
“I wasn’t ready to look back,” he says. “I was ready to jump into the business side and build a team in Miami.”
He talks about Lionel Messi or “Leo,” who joined his Miami team as a 36-year-old soccer star who won every tournament and trophy available. “He’s still the hardest working,” Beckham said. “ He’s the first one into training and the last one out of training, but he still has a lot of fun doing it.”
The Netflix documentary director Fisher Stevens told Sports Illustrated he decided to do the Beckham documentary only after being granted final cut approval after going from “sort of curious” to enthusiastic. “I looked him up, watched his playing. I got into it,” Stevens told the magazine. “I met him on Zoom. And then when I met him and Victoria in person, I was pretty much convinced.”
Beckham says he spent a few years filming and describes the scale of the reaction as something that surprised him.
“He did an incredible job. Everyone seems to like it,” Beckham said. “I don’t think I’ve ever had a reaction about anything myself or my family did like this.”
Beckham embodies humility and humanity, an easygoing demeanor and general joy for life, and a passion for his many pursuits. He said he was not “plugging” the documentary but “referring” to it, and talked about enjoying seeing the children at the JCPenney event but didn’t mention the product.
He did, however, mention one moment he may regret: refusing to remove a hat despite Ferguson’s request.
“I walk into the room where we’re doing the meeting. I’m wearing a baseball cap. He says, ‘David, take your cap off.’ I was 21 years old,” Beckham said. “I was very stubborn, apparently. I said, ‘No.’ He said, ‘David, take your hat off.’ I said, ‘No.’ That’s one moment I do regret.”
Now that he’s the owner of a soccer team, he believes that a player resisting a manager’s request like that can undermine authority and create dissent. “If one of my players said that to me, I know how I would feel,” Beckham said.
