7 things you didn't know about David Beckham as Man Utd icon celebrates 50th birthday

David Beckham turns 50 today and the former England and star is one of the most recognisable celebrities in the . made his first-team debut for United in 1992 at the age of 17 and has remained in the public eye ever since.

He has won 19 major honours during spells at United, , LA Galaxy, AC Milan and Paris Saint-Germain, including the and six titles, and also captained England between 2000 and 2006.

Beckham's marriage to Spice Girl Victoria Adams in 1999 cemented him as a major celebrity outside of football, with the couple known as 'Posh and Becks' in the media after they began dating in 1997.

He has also opened up about his life in multiple autobiographies, while his life was also chronicled in the 2023 docu-series 'Beckham'. However, there may still be some interesting facts about Beckham that you may not know.

Here are seven that you might not have hear before...

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1. Beckham has said his middle name Robert comes from his Manchester United-supporting father Ted’s hero being Sir Bobby Charlton. His own idol as a child was Bryan Robson.

2. When Beckham – who would sign apprentice forms with United aged 16 – was 11 he won a skills competition at a Bobby Charlton Academy soccer school, with the prize taking him on a two-week trip to to experience the Catalan club’s facilities.

3. When he joined Real Madrid in 2003, Beckham – with his regular number seven already occupied by skipper Raul – opted for the 23 shirt as basketball great Michael Jordan had worn the same.

4. An hour-long video of Beckham sleeping after a Real training session went on display at London’s National Portrait Gallery in 2004. The work by artist Sam Taylor-Wood was entitled ‘David’.

5. Beckham in 2006 said he suffered from obsessive compulsive disorder, with excessive tidiness seeing him arranging “everything in a straight line or…in pairs”.

6. Among the godparents of Beckham and wife Victoria’s children are Sir Elton John and Elizabeth Hurley (Brooklyn and Romeo) and Marc Anthony and Eva Longoria (Cruz and Harper).

7. In 2022, the heavily-inked former midfielder estimated that he had 81 individual tattoos on his body. The collection, which includes a solar system image on his scalp, started with the word ‘Brooklyn’ on his lower back as his first tattoo.

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