London (AFP) – David Beckham will be awarded a knighthood by King Charles III next week in recognition of his football career and his charity work, reports said Friday. The former England football captain is set to be named in the King’s Birthday Honours List, according to the BBC and other sources. Other sporting figures who have been awarded the title include Beckham’s former manager at Manchester United, Alex Ferguson, and British tennis great Andy Murray.
The Sun newspaper said he would take the title of “sir” and his wife Victoria, a former member of the Spice Girls pop group, will be known as Lady Beckham. Beckham played 115 times for England as well as for a list of high-profile clubs including United and Real Madrid. He is currently the president and co-owner of US team Inter Miami and co-owner of Salford City, who play in the fourth tier of English football.
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The 50-year-old, who has long been in the running for a knighthood, was appointed an officer of the Order of the British Empire in 2003 — a lower award in Britain’s honours system. Victoria later received the same award for services to the fashion industry. David Beckham was last month named in Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential leaders in philanthropy.
He is an official ambassador for The King’s Foundation, supporting its education programmes and “efforts to ensure young people have a greater understanding of nature” and has been a UNICEF goodwill ambassador since 2005. Beckham is understood to have been on the verge of receiving a knighthood after helping London win its bid to host the 2012 Olympic Games.
But UK authorities placed a red flag on his nomination due to his involvement in an alleged tax avoidance scheme, according to previous reports. He was subsequently cleared. In 2017, British newspapers printed details of leaked emails in which Beckham criticised the honours system and the honours committee, according to the BBC. A spokesman for Beckham said at the time that the emails were “hacked”, “doctored” and “private”.
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