In an era when anyone can get "famous" for being cute, or articulate, or having reliable Wi-Fi and access to an HD camera (or, rarely, all of the above), it's refreshing to talk about someone who is a legitimate and unquestionable superstar on a truly global level. And David Beckham, who's making his first-ever appearance on a GQ cover this April, is one of a small handful of people who befit that description.
Why? Well, you'd be hard pressed to find a human being in the developed world who doesn't know who Beckham is, because the guy is pretty much everywhere. He's one of the current celebrity faces of H&M, a gig he got in part because of his ab-tastic turn as the face (or abdomen) of Emporio Armani underwear in 2007. He's also a spokesman for the clothing label Belstaff, an ambassador for the new-ish Scottish whiskey brand Haig Club, a partner in Kent & Curwen (a British menswear operation that's really big in Asia), and a lifetime face of Adidas, a deal he signed in 2003 for a reported $160 million.
And back in the day, he also played some soccer.
Before Becks was a model, a spokesperson, a businessman, a cover guy—or even a husband or father—he got famous being a world-class midfielder for Manchester United. He started training with the club as a teenager, but he made his first big splash at 21, in 1996, when he scored a mind-melting goal against Wimbledon from behind midfield. "This was before European soccer teams were really on TV in the United States," said Ryan O'Hanlon, who covered soccer as an editor for Grantland and is now the articles editor at The Ringer. "Occasionally you'd see something on a highlight show, but this was the sort of thing that was on every single highlight show. Because a guy scoring from behind mid-field almost never happens."
It's such a rare feat that people are still talking about it. Beckham's ability to kick a dead ball and, in O'Hanlon's words, "make it move in ways that no one else could" is where we get the phrase "bend it like Beckham." (We'd be remiss not to point out that a soccer-focused film of the same name launched Kiera Knightley's career.)
His own career was carefully calculated and managed. He took his skills to three other massively popular European teams (Real Madrid, AC Milan, and Paris Saint Germain, the club he was playing for when he retired in 2013), and even moved his family to Beverly Hills for five years to play for the Los Angeles Galaxy. It all made him a truly international celebrity. And if winning trophies for these teams didn't keep him in the spotlight, his media savvy certainly did.
"He always knew where the cameras were," said Roger Bennett, host of the NBC soccer show Men in Blazers, when GQ interviewed him about Beckham's myriad hairstyles. "When his team scored goals, no one was quicker to jump on the back of the goal scorer and lift himself up on their shoulders."
And that's how Beckham earned this cover (and all the other fun stuff he's done over the years): by being a hard-working, strategic thinker with a natural gift for closing deals most guys with MBAs only wish they possessed. That he did much of this without the aid of social media underscores his widespread appeal. (Of course, that's an arena he dominates now, too, with over 54 million fans on Facebook and close to 21 million on Instagram.)
It's tough to say who'll succeed Beckham, considering how many young athletes are hard at work trying to replicate the fame that only he, Michael Jordan, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and a small handful of other former jocks enjoy. Maybe it's not even possible in the age of over-sharing. But if you're a betting man, the smart money right now is on a young gun midfielder for Italy's Juventus FC named Paul Pogba.
"He's an amazing soccer player, and he's very fluent and conversant with American athletics and hip hop culture," O'Hanlon said. "He's wearing Carmelo Anthony jerseys and doing all this funny stuff on Instagram. And watching him play, it's very easy to appreciate that this guy is just doing something on a different level than everyone else."
Give him 20 years, and maybe he'll score a GQ cover, too.