David Beckham is football’s unstoppable money-making machine

There he is at a McDonald’s drive-through, or sipping a glass of Stella Artois, or riffing on his own fame for mobile giant Verizon.

Here comes an AI-generated 2002 Beckham in the Adidas World Cup ad with Hollywood star Timothée Chalamet. Beckham wants you to acknowledge that football can change lives with the help of Bank of America, drink Pepsi, snack on some Lay’s crisps...

After yet another blitz of marketing, all featuring the same 51-year-old Chingford boy, one is tempted to ask: have Americans heard of any other famous former footballers?

It is testament to the deep roots Beckham has laid in the US, from his 2007 arrival, aged just 31, at LA Galaxy in Major League Soccer, to besuited franchise owner, to a man with his own Hollywood Boulevard star. For the conservative US ad industry, which still spends eye-watering sums on traditional premium television spots, he is the safe bet to deliver the message.

In Qatar in 2022, Beckham ignored the domestic criticism of his endorsement of the Gulf nation’s World Cup and did what he does best – get on with earning vast amounts of money. He was on billboards, TV adverts and in stadiums in person as an emissary of the Qatari effort to establish its global brand. He still has the Qatar Airways endorsement. It felt like 2022 was the peak of his earning powers but, four years later, he seems to have outdone himself.

Other greats from his era and beyond – Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Thierry Henry, even Zinedine Zidane – had tried to get in on the action. Ibrahimovic stars with Jason Kelce in an ad for YouTube TV, but one gets the impression that the mercurial Swede needs the NFL star to carry US audiences. Ibrahimovic and Henry are in the US principally as pundits on Fox’s coverage.

Beckham has never been a pundit – and probably never will be for the simple reason that, financially, he does not need it. Neither is he an official “Fifa Legend” like the Brazilian Ronaldo, or Roberto Carlos, Alessandro Del Piero and countless other ageing titans. They turn up to sing for their supper in the court of Gianni Infantino in return for a lucrative sinecure. Beckham has no formal deal with Fifa. He has only attended one game so far, the US opener in Los Angeles.

A senior figure at Fifa confirmed the governing body has no contact with Beckham, despite his ubiquity in the US. “It’s us, it’s Uefa, it’s Beckham,” was that Fifa insider’s view of the hierarchy.

He does not have to be present to rule the roost commercially. Beckham is on a tier above all these players. After Fifa, and the big two – Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi – he is arguably the biggest football brand at this World Cup.

Freshly knighted, and now it seems a friend of King Charles III, Beckham has long been part of the furniture in British public life. But it is in the US where he is busy making serious money and growing his fortune. He was anointed earlier this year by Forbes as the first billionaire footballer and estimated to be worth US$1.6 billion ($1.9b). Retired for 13 years now, the growth of that fortune is accelerating two decades since he last stepped on the pitch at a World Cup.

The most recent financial results for DB Ventures [DBV], his company that is now majority-owned by the brand-licensing giant Authentic Group, posted revenues of US$63.6m and profits of US$39m. Insiders say that the next set of results, for the year ending December 2025, will reveal a 50% increase. Beckham has licensed his brand the world over and it has proved very lucrative indeed.

Even the estrangement from his oldest son Brooklyn, 27, does not seem to have diminished the lustre around Beckham. The allegations made by Brooklyn of a controlling family focused entirely on sweating the asset to generate maximum returns certainly sounded plausible – coming as they did from the ultimate insider. But they seem to have had no effect on the attitude of the biggest brands.

For his part, Brooklyn has landed his own spot for the takeaway delivery service DoorDash, with a punchline that alludes to the family rift.

A cynic might say that the Beckham drama has served some purpose in keeping the family exactly where they need to be – as a source of fascination to the public. Insiders say that Brooklyn’s estrangement is just a sad and difficult family situation and that Beckham, and his wife Victoria, wish it were otherwise.

Meanwhile, it is on with the show. The McDonald’s campaign is a one-off for the World Cup. Bank of America, Pepsi, Lay’s, Verizon, Home Depot and Adidas are all long-term partnerships. Home Depot used Beckham’s own Studio 99 production company to make the commercial in which he starred with actor Josh Lucas. The other brands are so big even Beckham’s negotiating power cannot dictate he makes, as well as stars, in the ad.

The Adidas ad is a classic marquee World Cup spot with an array of stars. Beckham gets equal billing with the likes of Messi, Jude Bellingham and Lamine Yamal. The retro Beckham featured was chiefly created from CGI using historic footage, but he did have a filming session in order that the technical creators could capture his movement.

Only in that ad does Beckham not have star billing. When he endorses Hugo Boss, for instance, he does not just shill for any suit – Boss has its own Beckham collection. Ditto with his bespoke Adidas Predators. He has his own eponymous sunglasses range, DB Eyewear, for which presumably the manufacturer considered Beckham’s brand superior to any market-recognition it might have already.

Peter Moore, the former Liverpool chief executive and now based in the US, said that Beckham’s appeal was that “he is seen as not threatening to anybody”. He added: “Americans love that. He’s the British Shaquille O’Neal [retired NBA star]. For either of them, if you’re here long enough, you’re going to see their commercials. They are safe bets with broad appeals across demographics.”

Anthony Goldman, co-founder of Noise Media, a social media marketing agency, said that Beckham had built his brand in a media landscape that no longer exists, where families consumed culture together, mainly via television. “Would David Beckham be David Beckham again if he was born now?” he said. “I don’t think so. He came at the exact moment when personality branding and social media hadn’t taken off yet.”

For all Beckham’s success traversing sport, fashion and family, Gordon said in the end the numbers told their own story. “The reason all these brands want to collaborate with him is because it’s a very safe way to generate money. He creates a severe level of trust. Now his positioning is as a family man, ‘I’m safe’. This all comes down to sales. Everyone wants to make money.”

Beckham has not become a billionaire by brand-licensing alone. Those who work for him describe their principal as an “entrepreneur” and while that may seem an awkward fit at first glance, one could argue that he has created the template for the ultimate post-playing career.

The majority of his fortune is his stake in the MLS franchise Inter Miami, a club who played their first game in 2020 and are now one of the most valuable in the US. That is not simply the marketable pink home shirts adorned with the No 10 and the name of Messi, now signed up for another three years. It is also the real estate that comes with it. The team’s 26,500-capacity Nu Stadium opened in April, and the proposed Freedom Park shopping and entertainment complex, is very valuable.

Beckham secured the right to buy an MLS franchise for US$25m in 2007, a shrewd move by the man himself and his agent at the time, Terry Byrne. Although Beckham has outgrown every agent and adviser from his playing days.

His wealth and earning power rest chiefly in two camps. There are his personal investments, such as Inter Miami, Freedom Park and his wellness supplement brand IM8. Then there is DBV and its part in Authentic which, in 2022, paid about US$269m for 55% of the business.

Authentic, founded by the US billionaire Jamie Salter, bills itself as the biggest brand-licensing business in the world after Disney. Beckham also owns a stake in Authentic, which owns the estates of Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe and Muhammad Ali. Authentic owns the brands Reebok, Champion, Lee Jeans, Quiksilver and Ted Baker. It has similar stakes to the one it has in DBV with O’Neal and, most recently acquired, the comedian-actor Kevin Hart.

DBV has around 20 Beckham-centric staff led by Dave Gardner, his old friend from their days as Manchester United apprentices, and Nicola Howson. Authentic has hundreds more staff around the world helping to sell and manage the Beckham brand.

This year, insiders say, has naturally been football-focused with the stadium opening and then a World Cup in prime Beckham territory. But, unlike Fifa, Beckham does not have to wait every four years for a payday. His business pivots to other markets in Asia and elsewhere. The majority of his work time is spent with Inter Miami, which is made easier now MLS will follow the European football calendar. He still calls home his house in Holland Park, west London, although he has a Cotswolds residence.

It was around that home that the 2023 Netflix Beckham series was made – a documentary according to Beckham, although in reality a tightly controlled in-house Studio 99 production. It seems to have done wonders in selling the Beckham story to a new generation. From east-London lad to global football star at United and Real Madrid. It even touched on his affair with former PA Rebecca Loos, previously considered much too dangerous territory. That briefly stirred up a storm with Loos responding robustly. As ever Beckham seems to have escaped largely unscathed.

The football tale has been told over and again and is the foundation story of the Beckham brand. He was a very good footballer, if not a great one – and certainly not nearly as great as the likes of Henry and Zidane who trail in his wake in terms of US commercial power. But much more intriguing is the most recent chapter. How a fiercely ambitious boy from an ordinary background built a £1 billion empire, adapting to a rapidly changing media landscape and impervious to scandal.

Of course, there have been shrewd advisers, ferocious PRs, and solicitous investors, but essentially Beckham has been the captain of this ship. More than three decades on from his Premier League debut it is he who drives it forward with what seems like an insatiable desire to become richer and richer.

One asks the question of those close to him, will it ever be thus? Will the 2034 World Cup and then the 2038 World Cup roll around with Beckham selling luxury barbecue equipment to the Spanish and zero per cent Stella to the Saudis? Will he still be obliged, aged 60, to get the six pack into shape for another Boss underwear campaign?

The official line is that he is building “robust businesses for the future”. If, for instance, Ronaldo and Messi ease into retirement and claim much of his share of blue-chip advertising, then Beckham now has established investments to fall back on. There are suggestions that Messi himself fancies buying Inter Miami. The Beckham view is a polite no to any sale of his stake: he regards it as his legacy, insiders say, to be passed on to the Beckham grandchildren.

Either way, those wishing to supplant him at the top of the list for anxious marketing departments everywhere will have to prise Beckham’s fingers off the prize. Messi has the impeccable football pedigree, but he remains an awkward performer away from the pitch. Ronaldo, who seems willing to advertise anything for the right price, can come across as a strange figure lost deep in the fame bubble.

Beckham has managed to avoid that trap. He has cultivated that relatable image, however true it might be to his real life, and it has served him well. The Home Depot advert plays on his professed love of beekeeping. Verizon’s ad gently pokes fun at him. It shows how he has skilfully deployed the full range of public personas. From the volatility of his 1990s playing career, to 2000s superstar, to 2020s eccentric dad. He delivers a crucial market for advertisers.

He has had to work at it. Beckham was not a confident TV commercial performer in his early years and it does not seem to come easily even now. But if there is a brand to be advertised and a fee that is big enough, then he will be there. One hesitates to say that a life of private jets and excellent hotels is hard work, but if hard work exists in the world of elite celebrity endorsements then this is the guy.

Sawing, sipping, glad-handing, or just raising a sceptical manicured eyebrow for the camera. Beckham must wonder sometimes how on earth he pulled this off. As with all his views on the world and those in it, those thoughts are not for public consumption. He sells an image, a feeling and at times a sharp pang of nostalgia – and it has made him very rich indeed.

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Sir David Beckham features in a wide array of advertisements being televised this summer

There are many celebrated footballers being beamed into the homes of the American television audience this summer but none, it seems, are more famous in the United States than Sir David Beckham.

When the game stops, the Beckham show starts. He may feature in as many as three separate commercial spots during half-time or one of the two hydration breaks when the network Fox goes to an advertisement break. There is not another former player who gets close to that exposure – even those who won World Cups, Premier League golden boots, and the occasional Ballon d’Or.

There is Beckham visiting Home Depot, the US DIY store, to build a garden in which to watch the World Cup...

There he is at a McDonald’s drive-through, or sipping a glass of Stella Artois, or riffing on his own fame for mobile giant Verizon.

Here comes an AI-generated 2002 Beckham in the Adidas World Cup ad with Hollywood star Timothée Chalamet. Beckham wants you to acknowledge that football can change lives with the help of Bank of America, drink Pepsi, snack on some Lay’s crisps...

After yet another blitz of marketing, all featuring the same 51-year-old Chingford boy, one is tempted to ask: have Americans heard of any other famous former footballers?

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It is testament to the deep roots Beckham has laid in the US, from his 2007 arrival, aged just 31, at LA Galaxy in Major League Soccer, to besuited franchise owner, to a man with his own Hollywood Boulevard star. For the conservative US ad industry, which still spends eye-watering sums on traditional premium television spots, he is the safe bet to deliver the message.

In Qatar in 2022, Beckham ignored the domestic criticism of his endorsement of the Gulf nation’s World Cup and did what he does best – get on with earning vast amounts of money. He was on billboards, TV adverts and in stadiums in person as an emissary of the Qatari effort to establish its global brand. He still has the Qatar Airways endorsement. It felt like 2022 was the peak of his earning powers but, four years later, he seems to have outdone himself.

Other greats from his era and beyond – Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Thierry Henry, even Zinedine Zidane – had tried to get in on the action. Ibrahimovic stars with Jason Kelce in an ad for YouTube TV, but one gets the impression that the mercurial Swede needs the NFL star to carry US audiences. Ibrahimovic and Henry are in the US principally as pundits on Fox’s coverage.

Beckham has never been a pundit – and probably never will be for the simple reason that, financially, he does not need it. Neither is he an official “Fifa Legend” like the Brazilian Ronaldo, or Roberto Carlos, Alessandro Del Piero and countless other ageing titans. They turn up to sing for their supper in the court of Gianni Infantino in return for a lucrative sinecure. Beckham has no formal deal with Fifa. He has only attended one game so far, the US opener in Los Angeles.

David Beckham alongside Tom Cruise, the Hollywood actor, at the World Cup opening ceremony earlier this month

A senior figure at Fifa confirmed the governing body has no contact with Beckham, despite his ubiquity in the US. “It’s us, it’s Uefa, it’s Beckham,” was that Fifa insider’s view of the hierarchy.

He does not have to be present to rule the roost commercially. Beckham is on a tier above all these players. After Fifa, and the big two – Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi – he is arguably the biggest football brand at this World Cup.

Freshly knighted, and now it seems a friend of King Charles III, Beckham has long been part of the furniture in British public life. But it is in the US where he is busy making serious money and growing his fortune. He was anointed earlier this year by Forbes as the first billionaire footballer and estimated to be worth $1.6bn (£1.3bn). Retired for 13 years now, the growth of that fortune is accelerating two decades since he last stepped on the pitch at a World Cup.

David Beckham (right) received his knighthood from King Charles III in November last year Credit: Jonathan Brady/PA

The most recent financial results for DB Ventures [DBV], his company that is now majority-owned by the brand-licensing giant Authentic Group, posted revenues of $63.6m and profits of $39m. Insiders say that the next set of results, for the year ending December 2025, will reveal a 50 per cent increase. Beckham has licensed his brand the world over and it has proved very lucrative indeed.

Even the estrangement from his oldest son Brooklyn, 27, does not seem to have diminished the lustre around Beckham. The allegations made by Brooklyn of a controlling family focused entirely on sweating the asset to generate maximum returns certainly sounded plausible – coming as they did from the ultimate insider. But they seem to have had no effect on the attitude of the biggest brands.

For his part, Brooklyn has landed his own spot for the takeaway delivery service DoorDash, with a punchline that alludes to the family rift.

A cynic might say that the Beckham drama has served some purpose in keeping the family exactly where they need to be – as a source of fascination to the public. Insiders say that Brooklyn’s estrangement is just a sad and difficult family situation and that Beckham, and his wife Victoria, wish it were otherwise.

Meanwhile, it is on with the show. The McDonald’s campaign is a one-off for the World Cup. Bank of America, Pepsi, Lay’s, Verizon, Home Depot and Adidas are all long-term partnerships. Home Depot used Beckham’s own Studio 99 production company to make the commercial in which he starred with actor Josh Lucas. The other brands are so big even Beckham’s negotiating power cannot dictate he makes, as well as stars, in the ad.

Beckham (centre) alongside (from left) Ronald McDonald, Ronaldinho, Lamine Yamal, Thierry Henry, Son Heung-min, Omar Marmoush, Christian Pulisic and Alphonso Davies

The Adidas ad is a classic marquee World Cup spot with an array of stars. Beckham gets equal billing with the likes of Messi, Jude Bellingham and Lamine Yamal. The retro Beckham featured was chiefly created from CGI using historic footage, but he did have a filming session in order that the technical creators could capture his movement.

Only in that ad does Beckham not have star billing. When he endorses Hugo Boss, for instance, he does not just shill for any suit – Boss has its own Beckham collection. Ditto with his bespoke Adidas Predators. He has his own eponymous sunglasses range, DB Eyewear, for which presumably the manufacturer considered Beckham’s brand superior to any market-recognition it might have already.

Peter Moore, the former Liverpool chief executive and now based in the US, said that Beckham’s appeal was that “he is seen as not threatening to anybody”. He added: “Americans love that. He’s the British Shaquille O’Neal [retired NBA star]. For either of them, if you’re here long enough, you’re going to see their commercials. They are safe bets with broad appeals across demographics.”

Anthony Goldman, co-founder of Noise Media, a social media marketing agency, said that Beckham had built his brand in a media landscape that no longer exists, where families consumed culture together, mainly via television. “Would David Beckham be David Beckham again if he was born now?” he said. “I don’t think so. He came at the exact moment when personality branding and social media hadn’t taken off yet.”

For all Beckham’s success traversing sport, fashion and family, Gordon said in the end the numbers told their own story. “The reason all these brands want to collaborate with him is because it’s a very safe way to generate money. He creates a severe level of trust. Now his positioning is as a family man, ‘I’m safe’. This all comes down to sales. Everyone wants to make money.”

Beckham has not become a billionaire by brand-licensing alone. Those who work for him describe their principal as an “entrepreneur” and while that may seem an awkward fit at first glance, one could argue that he has created the template for the ultimate post-playing career.

Beckham featuring in the latest Walkers advert alongside Henry (left) and Lionel Messi (left of Beckham)

The majority of his fortune is his stake in the MLS franchise Inter Miami, a club who played their first game in 2020 and are now one of the most valuable in the US. That is not simply the marketable pink home shirts adorned with the number 10 and the name of Messi, now signed up for another three years. It is also the real estate that comes with it. The team’s 26,500-capacity Nu Stadium opened in April, and the proposed Freedom Park shopping and entertainment complex, is very valuable.

Beckham secured the right to buy a MLS franchise for $25m in 2007, a shrewd move by the man himself and his agent at the time, Terry Byrne. Although Beckham has outgrown every agent and adviser from his playing days.

His wealth and earning power rest chiefly in two camps. There are his personal investments, such as Inter Miami, Freedom Park and his wellness supplement brand IM8. Then there is DBV and its part in Authentic which, in 2022, paid about $269m for 55 per cent of the business.

Authentic, founded by the US billionaire Jamie Salter, bills itself as the biggest brand-licensing business in the world after Disney. Beckham also owns a stake in Authentic, which owns the estates of Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe and Muhammad Ali. Authentic owns the brands Reebok, Champion, Lee Jeans, Quiksilver and Ted Baker. It has similar stakes to the one it has in DBV with O’Neal and, most recently acquired, the comedian-actor Kevin Hart.

DBV has around 20 Beckham-centric staff led by Dave Gardner, his old friend from their days as Manchester United apprentices, and Nicola Howson. Authentic has hundreds more staff around the world helping to sell and manage the Beckham brand.

This year, insiders say, has naturally been football-focused with the stadium opening and then a World Cup in prime Beckham territory. But, unlike Fifa, Beckham does not have to wait every four years for a payday. His business pivots to other markets in Asia and elsewhere. The majority of his work time is spent with Inter Miami, which is made easier now MLS will follow the European football calendar. He still calls home his house in Holland Park, west London, although he has a Cotswolds residence.

It was around that home that the 2023 Netflix Beckham series was made – a documentary according to Beckham, although in reality a tightly controlled in-house Studio 99 production. It seems to have done wonders in selling the Beckham story to a new generation. From east-London lad to global football star at United and Real Madrid. It even touched on his affair with former PA Rebecca Loos, previously considered much too dangerous territory. That briefly stirred up a storm with Loos responding robustly. As ever Beckham seems to have escaped largely unscathed.

The football tale has been told over and again and is the foundation story of the Beckham brand. He was a very good footballer, if not a great one – and certainly not nearly as great as the likes of Henry and Zidane who trail in his wake in terms of US commercial power. But much more intriguing is the most recent chapter. How a fiercely ambitious boy from an ordinary background built a £1bn empire, adapting to a rapidly changing media landscape and impervious to scandal.

Beckham was honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame before the World Cup Credit: Lisa O’Connor/AFP

Of course, there have been shrewd advisers, ferocious PRs, and solicitous investors, but essentially Beckham has been the captain of this ship. More than three decades on from his Premier League debut it is he who drives it forward with what seems like an insatiable desire to become richer and richer.

One asks the question of those close to him, will it ever be thus? Will the 2034 World Cup and then the 2038 World Cup roll around with Beckham selling luxury barbecue equipment to the Spanish and zero per cent Stella to the Saudis? Will he still be obliged, aged 60, to get the six pack into shape for another Boss underwear campaign?

The official line is that he is building “robust businesses for the future”. If, for instance, Ronaldo and Messi ease into retirement and claim much of his share of blue-chip advertising, then Beckham now has established investments to fall back on. There are suggestions that Messi himself fancies buying Inter Miami. The Beckham view is a polite no to any sale of his stake: he regards it as his legacy, insiders say, to be passed on to the Beckham grandchildren.

Either way, those wishing to supplant him at the top of the list for anxious marketing departments everywhere will have to prise Beckham’s fingers off the prize. Messi has the impeccable football pedigree, but he remains an awkward performer away from the pitch. Ronaldo, who seems willing to advertise anything for the right price, can come across as a strange figure lost deep in the fame bubble.

Beckham was instrumental in bringing Lionel Messi to Inter Miami in 2023 Credit: Lynne Sladky/AP

Beckham has managed to avoid that trap. He has cultivated that relatable image, however true it might be to his real life, and it has served him well. The Home Depot advert plays on his professed love of beekeeping. Verizon’s ad gently pokes fun at him. It shows how he has skilfully deployed the full range of public personas. From the volatility of his 1990s playing career, to 2000s superstar, to 2020s eccentric dad. He delivers a crucial market for advertisers.

He has had to work at it. Beckham was not a confident TV commercial performer in his early years and it does not seem to come easily even now. But if there is a brand to be advertised and a fee that is big enough, then he will be there. One hesitates to say that a life of private jets and excellent hotels is hard work, but if hard work exists in the world of elite celebrity endorsements then this is the guy.

Sawing, sipping, glad-handing, or just raising a sceptical manicured eyebrow for the camera. Beckham must wonder sometimes how on earth he pulled this off. As with all his views on the world and those in it, those thoughts are not for public consumption. He sells an image, a feeling and at times a sharp pang of nostalgia – and it has made him very rich indeed.

Additional reporting from Lucy Denyer in New York.