Beltane

Beltane

Beltane or Beltain (/ˈbɛl.teɪn/)[5][6] is the Gaelic May Day festival. Most commonly it is held on 1 May, or about halfway between the spring equinox and the summer solstice. Historically, it was widely observed throughout Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man. In Irish the name for the festival day is Lá Bealtaine ([l̪ˠaː ˈbʲal̪ˠt̪ˠənʲə]), in Scottish Gaelic Là Bealltainn ([l̪ˠaː ˈpjaul̪ˠt̪ɪɲ]) and in Manx Gaelic Laa Boaltinn/Boaldyn. It is one of the four Gaelic seasonal festivals—along with Samhain, Imbolc and Lughnasadh—and is similar to the Welsh Calan Mai.

Beltane is mentioned in some of the earliest Irish literature and is associated with important events in Irish mythology. Also known as Cétshamhain ("first of summer"), it marked the beginning of summer and was when cattle were driven out to the summer pastures. Rituals were performed to protect the cattle, crops and people, and to encourage growth. Special bonfires were kindled, and their flames, smoke and ashes were deemed to have protective powers. The people and their cattle would walk around or between bonfires, and sometimes leap over the flames or embers. All household fires would be doused and then re-lit from the Beltane bonfire. These gatherings would be accompanied by a feast, and some of the food and drink would be offered to the aos sí. Doors, windows, byres and livestock would be decorated with yellow May flowers, perhaps because they evoked fire. In parts of Ireland, people would make a May Bush: typically a thorn bush or branch decorated with flowers, ribbons, bright shells and rushlights. Holy wells were also visited, while Beltane dew was thought to bring beauty and maintain youthfulness. Many of these customs were part of May Day or Midsummer festivals in other parts of Great Britain and Europe.

Beltane celebrations had largely died out by the mid-20th century, although some of its customs continued and in some places it has been revived as a cultural event. Since the late 20th century, Celtic neopagans and Wiccans have observed Beltane as a religious holiday. Neopagans in the Southern Hemisphere celebrate Beltane on or around 1 November.

Historic Beltane customs

Beltane was one of four Gaelic seasonal festivals: Samhain (~1 November), Imbolc (~1 February), Beltane (~1 May), and Lughnasadh (~1 August). Beltane marked the beginning of the pastoral summer season, when livestock were driven out to the summer pastures.[7][8] Rituals were held at that time to protect them from harm, both natural and supernatural, and this mainly involved the "symbolic use of fire".[7] There were also rituals to protect crops, dairy products and people, and to encourage growth. The aos sí (often referred to as spirits or fairies) were thought to be especially active at Beltane (as at Samhain)[7] and the goal of many Beltane rituals was to appease them. Most scholars see the aos sí as remnants of the pagan gods and nature spirits.[9] Beltane was a "spring time festival of optimism" during which "fertility ritual again was important, perhaps connecting with the waxing power of the sun".[3]

Before the modern era

Beltane (the beginning of summer) and Samhain (the beginning of winter) are thought to have been the most important of the four Gaelic festivals. Sir James George Frazer wrote in The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion that the times of Beltane and Samhain are of little importance to European crop-growers, but of great importance to herdsmen. Thus, he suggests that halving the year at 1 May and 1 November dates from a time when the Celts were mainly a pastoral people, dependent on their herds.[10]

The earliest mention of Beltane is in Old Irish literature from Gaelic Ireland. According to the early medieval texts Sanas Cormaic and Tochmarc Emire, Beltane was held on 1 May and marked the beginning of summer. The texts say that, to protect cattle from disease, the druids would make two fires "with great incantations" and drive the cattle between them.[11][12]

According to 17th-century historian Geoffrey Keating, there was a great gathering at the hill of Uisneach each Beltane in medieval Ireland, where a sacrifice was made to a god named Beil. Keating wrote that two bonfires would be lit in every district of Ireland, and cattle would be driven between them to protect them from disease.[13] There is no reference to such a gathering in the annals, but the medieval Dindsenchas includes a tale of a hero lighting a holy fire on Uisneach that blazed for seven years. Ronald Hutton writes that this may "preserve a tradition of Beltane ceremonies there", but adds "Keating or his source may simply have conflated this legend with the information in Sanas Chormaic to produce a piece of pseudo-history."[7] Nevertheless, excavations at Uisneach in the 20th century found evidence of large fires and charred bones, showing it to have been ritually significant.[7][14][15]

Beltane is also mentioned in medieval Scottish literature.[16] An early reference is found in the poem 'Peblis to the Play', contained in the Maitland Manuscripts of 15th- and 16th-century Scots poetry, which describes the celebration in the town of Peebles.[17]

Modern era

From the late 18th century to the mid 20th century, many accounts of Beltane customs were recorded by folklorists and other writers. For example John Jamieson, in his Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language (1808) describes some of the Beltane customs which persisted in the 18th and early 19th centuries in parts of Scotland, which he noted were beginning to die out.[18] In the 19th century, folklorist Alexander Carmichael (1832–1912), collected the song Am Beannachadh Bealltain (The Beltane Blessing) in his Carmina Gadelica, which he heard from a crofter in South Uist.[17]

Bonfires

Bonfires continued to be a key part of the festival in the modern era. All hearth fires and candles would be doused before the bonfire was lit, generally on a mountain or hill.[3][19] Ronald Hutton writes that "To increase the potency of the holy flames, in Britain at least they were often kindled by the most primitive of all means, of friction between wood."[7] In the 19th century, for example, John Ramsay described Scottish Highlanders kindling a need-fire or force-fire at Beltane. Such a fire was deemed sacred.[7] In the 19th century, the ritual of driving cattle between two fires—as described in Sanas Cormaic almost 1000 years before—was still practised across most of Ireland and in parts of Scotland.[7] Sometimes the cattle would be driven "around" a bonfire or be made to leap over flames or embers. The people themselves would do likewise.[7] In the Isle of Man, people ensured that the smoke blew over them and their cattle.[8] When the bonfire had died down, people would daub themselves with its ashes and sprinkle it over their crops and livestock.[7] Burning torches from the bonfire would be taken home, where they would be carried around the house or boundary of the farmstead[20] and would be used to re-light the hearth.[7] From these rituals, it is clear that the fire was seen as having protective powers.[7] Similar rituals were part of May Day, Midsummer or Easter customs in other parts of the British Isles and mainland Europe.[21] According to Frazer, the fire rituals are a kind of imitative or sympathetic magic. According to one theory, they were meant to mimic the Sun and to "ensure a needful supply of sunshine for men, animals, and plants". According to another, they were meant to symbolically "burn up and destroy all harmful influences"

Food was also cooked at the bonfire and there were rituals involving it. Alexander Carmichael wrote that there was a feast featuring lamb, and that formerly this lamb was sacrificed.[23] In 1769, Thomas Pennant wrote that, in Perthshire, a caudle made from eggs, butter, oatmeal and milk was cooked on the bonfire. Some of the mixture was poured on the ground as a libation. Everyone present would then take an oatmeal cake, called the bannoch Bealltainn or "Beltane bannock". A bit of it was offered to the spirits to protect their livestock (one bit to protect the horses, one bit to protect the sheep, and so forth) and a bit was offered to each of the animals that might harm their livestock (one to the fox, one to the eagle, and so forth). Afterwards, they would drink the caudle.[7]

According to 18th century writers, in parts of Scotland there was another ritual involving the oatmeal cake. The cake would be cut and one of the slices marked with charcoal. The slices would then be put in a bonnet and everyone would take one out while blindfolded. According to one writer, whoever got the marked piece would have to leap through the fire three times. According to another, those present would pretend to throw them into the fire and, for some time afterwards, they would speak of them as if they were dead. This "may embody a memory of actual human sacrifice", or it may have always been symbolic.[7] A similar ritual (i.e. of pretending to burn someone in the fire) was practised at spring and summer bonfire festivals in other parts of Europe

May Day

May Day

May Day is a public holiday usually celebrated on 1 May or the first Monday of May. It is an ancient festival of Spring[1] and a current traditional spring holiday in many European cultures. Dances, singing, and cake are usually part of the festivities.[citation needed]

In 1889, May Day was chosen as the date for International Workers' Day by the Socialists and Communists of the Second International to commemorate the Haymarket affair in Chicago.[2] International Workers' Day is also called "May Day", but it is a different celebration from the traditional May Day.

Origins and celebrations

The earliest known May celebrations appeared with the Floralia, festival of Flora, the Roman goddess of flowers, held from 27 April – 3 May during the Roman Republic era, and the Maiouma or Maiuma, a festival celebrating Dionysus and Aphrodite held every three years during the month of May.[3] The Floralia opened with theatrical performances. In the Floralia, Ovid says that hares and goats were released as part of the festivities. Persius writes that crowds were pelted with vetches, beans, and lupins. A ritual called the Florifertum was performed on either 27 April or 3 May,[4][5] during which a bundle of wheat ears was carried into a shrine, though it is not clear if this devotion was made to Flora or Ceres.[6][7] Floralia concluded with competitive events and spectacles, and a sacrifice to Flora.[8]

Maiouma was celebrated at least as early as the 2nd century AD, when records show expenses for the month-long festival were appropriated by Emperor Commodus.[9] According to the 6th-century chronicles of John Malalas, the Maiouma was a "nocturnal dramatic festival, held every three years and known as Orgies, that is, the Mysteries of Dionysus and Aphrodite" and that it was "known as the Maioumas because it is celebrated in the month of May-Artemisios". During this time, enough money was set aside by the government for torches, lights, and other expenses to cover a thirty-day festival of "all-night revels."[10] The Maiouma was celebrated with splendorous banquets and offerings. Its reputation for licentiousness caused it to be suppressed during the reign of Emperor Constantine, though a less debauched version of it was briefly restored during the reigns of Arcadius and Honorius, only to be suppressed again during the same period.[9]

A later May festival celebrated in Germanic countries, Walpurgis Night, commemorates the official canonization of Saint Walpurga on 1 May 870.[11] In Gaelic culture, the evening of April 30th was the celebration of Beltane (which translates to "lucky fire"), the start of the summer season. First attested in 900 AD, the celebration mainly focused on the symbolic use of fire to bless cattle and other livestock as they were moved to summer pastures. This custom continued into the early 19th century, during which time cattle would be made to jump over fires to protect their milk from being stolen by fairies. People would also leap over the fires for luck.[12]

Since the 18th century, many Roman Catholics have observed May – and May Day – with various May devotions to the Blessed Virgin Mary.[13] In works of art, school skits, and so forth, Mary's head will often be adorned with flowers in a May crowning. 1 May is also one of two feast days of the Catholic patron saint of workers St Joseph the Worker, a carpenter, husband to Mother Mary, and surrogate father of Jesus.[14] Replacing another feast to St. Joseph, this date was chosen by Pope Pius XII in 1955 as a counterpoint to the communist International Workers Day celebrations on May Day.[14]

The best known modern May Day traditions, observed both in Europe and North America, include dancing around the maypole and crowning the Queen of May. Fading in popularity since the late 20th century is the tradition of giving of "May baskets," small baskets of sweets or flowers, usually left anonymously on neighbours' doorsteps.[15]

In the late 20th century, many neopagans began reconstructing some of the older pagan festivals and combining them with more recently developed European secular and Catholic traditions, and celebrating May Day as a pagan religious festival.[16]

Europe

Bulgaria

On May Day, Bulgarians celebrate Irminden (or Yeremiya, Eremiya, Irima, Zamski den). The holiday is associated with snakes and lizards and rituals are made in order to protect people from them. The name of the holiday comes from the prophet Jeremiah, but its origins are most probably pagan.

It is said that on the days of the Holy Forty or Annunciation snakes come out of their burrows, and on Irminden their king comes out. Old people believe that those working in the fields on this day will be bitten by a snake in summer.

In western Bulgaria people light fires, jump over them and make noises to scare snakes. Another custom is to prepare "podnici" (special clay pots made for baking bread).

This day is especially observed by pregnant women so that their offspring do not catch "yeremiya" — an illness due to evil powers.

Czech Republic

In Czech Republic, May Day is traditionally considered a holiday of love and May as a month of love. The celebrations of spring are held on April 30 when a maypole ("májka" in Czech) is erected — a tradition possibly connected to Beltane, since bonfires are also lit on the same day. The event is similar to German Walpurgisnacht, its public holiday on April 30. On May 31st, the maypole is taken down in an event called Maypole Felling.

On May 1st, couples in love kiss under a blooming tree. According to the ethnographer Klára Posekaná, this is not an old habit. It most likely originated around the beginning of the 20th century in an urban environment, perhaps in connection with Karel Hynek Mácha's poem Máj (which is often recited during these days) and Petřín. This is usually done under a cherry, an apple or a birch tree.

Estonia

May Day or "Spring Day" (Kevadpüha) is a national holiday in Estonia celebrating the arrival of spring.

More traditional festivities take place throughout the night before and into the early hours of 1 May, on the Walpurgis Night (Volbriöö).

Finland

In Finland, Walpurgis night (Vappu) ("Vappen") is one of the four biggest holidays along with Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve, and Midsummer (Juhannus - Midsommar).[17] Walpurgis witnesses the biggest carnival-style festival held in Finland's cities and towns. The celebrations, which begin on the evening of 30 April and continue on 1 May, typically centre on the consumption of sima, sparkling wine and other alcoholic beverages. Student traditions, particularly those of engineering students, are one of the main characteristics of Vappu. Since the end of the 19th century, this traditional upper-class feast has been appropriated by university students. Many lukio (university-preparatory high school) alumni wear the black and white student cap and many higher education students wear student coveralls. One tradition is to drink sima, a home-made low-alcohol mead, along with freshly cooked funnel cakes.

France

On 1 May 1561, King Charles IX of France received a lily of the valley as a lucky charm. He decided to offer a lily of the valley each year to the ladies of the court. At the beginning of the 20th century, it became custom to give a sprig of lily of the valley, a symbol of springtime, on 1 May. The government permits individuals and workers' organisations to sell them tax-free on that single day. Nowadays, people may present loved ones either with bunches of lily of the valley or dog rose flowers.[18]

Germany

In rural regions of Germany, especially the Harz Mountains, Walpurgisnacht celebrations of pagan origin are traditionally held on the night before May Day, including bonfires and the wrapping of a Maibaum (maypole). Young people use this opportunity to party, while the day itself is used by many families to get some fresh air. Motto: "Tanz in den Mai" ("Dance into May").

In the Rhineland, 1 May is also celebrated by the delivery of a maypole, a tree covered in streamers to the house of a girl the night before. The tree is typically from a love interest, though a tree wrapped only in white streamers is a sign of dislike. Women usually place roses or rice in the form of a heart at the house of their beloved one. It is common to stick the heart to a window or place it in front of the doormat. In leap years, it is the responsibility of the women to place the maypole. All the action is usually done secretly and it is an individual's choice whether to give a hint of their identity or stay anonymous.

May Day was not established as a public holiday until the Third Reich declared 1 May a “national workers’ day” in 1933. As Labour Day, many political parties and unions host activities related to work and employment.

Greece

1 May is a day that celebrates Spring.

Maios (Latin Maius), the month of May, took its name from the goddess Maia (Gr Μαία, the nurse), a Greek and Roman goddess of fertility. The day of Maios (Modern Greek Πρωτομαγιά) celebrates the final victory of the summer against winter as the victory of life against death. The celebration is similar to an ancient ritual associated with another minor demi-god Adonis which also celebrated the revival of nature. There is today some conflation with yet another tradition, the revival or marriage of Dionysus (the Greek God of theatre and wine-making). This event, however, was celebrated in ancient times not in May but in association with the Anthesteria, a festival held in February and dedicated to the goddess of agriculture Demeter and her daughter Persephone. Persephone emerged every year at the end of Winter from the Underworld. The Anthesteria was a festival of souls, plants and flowers, and Persephone's coming to earth from Hades marked the rebirth of nature, a common theme in all these traditions.

What remains of the customs today, echoes these traditions of antiquity. A common, until recently, May Day custom involved the annual revival of a youth called Adonis, or alternatively of Dionysus, or of Maios (in Modern Greek Μαγιόπουλο, the Son of Maia). In a simple theatrical ritual, the significance of which has long been forgotten, a chorus of young girls sang a song over a youth lying on the ground, representing Adonis, Dionysus or Maios. At the end of the song, the youth rose up and a flower wreath was placed on his head.

The most common aspect of modern May Day celebrations is the preparation of a flower wreath from wild flowers, although as a result of urbanisation there is an increasing trend to buy wreaths from flower shops. The flowers are placed on the wreath against a background of green leaves and the wreath is hung either on the entrance to the family house/apartment or on a balcony. It remains there until midsummer night. On that night, the flower wreaths are set alight in bonfires known as St John's fires. Youths leap over the flames consuming the flower wreaths. This custom has also practically disappeared, like the theatrical revival of Adonis/Dionysus/Maios, as a result of rising urban traffic and with no alternative public grounds in most Greek city neighbourhoods, not to mention potential conflicts with demonstrating workers.

Ireland

May Day has been celebrated in Ireland since pagan times as the feast of Beltane (Bealtaine) and in latter times as Mary's day. Traditionally, bonfires were lit to mark the coming of summer and to grant luck to people and livestock. Officially Irish May Day holiday is the first Monday in May. Old traditions such as bonfires are no longer widely observed, though the practice still persists in some places across the country. Limerick, Clare and many other people in other counties still keep on this tradition, including areas in Dublin city such as Ringsend.[19]

Italy

In Italy it is called Calendimaggio or cantar maggio a seasonal feast held to celebrate the arrival of spring. The event takes its name from the period in which it takes place, that is, the beginning of May, from the Latin calenda maia. The Calendimaggio is a tradition still alive today in many regions of Italy as an allegory of the return to life and rebirth: among these Piedmont, Liguria, Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna (for example, is celebrated in the area of the Quattro Province or Piacenza, Pavia, Alessandria and Genoa), Tuscany and Umbria. This magical-propitiatory ritual is often performed during an almsgiving in which, in exchange for gifts (traditionally eggs, wine, food or sweets), the Maggi (or maggerini) sing auspicious verses to the inhabitants of the houses they visit. Throughout the Italian peninsula these Il Maggio couplets are very diverse—most are love songs with a strong romantic theme, that young people sang to celebrate the arrival of spring. Symbols of spring revival are the trees (alder, golden rain) and flowers (violets, roses), mentioned in the verses of the songs, and with which the maggerini adorn themselves. In particular the plant alder, which grows along the rivers, is considered the symbol of life and that's why it is often present in the ritual.

Calendimaggio can be historically noted in Tuscany as a mythical character who had a predominant role and met many of the attributes of the god Belenus. In Lucania, the Maggi have a clear auspicious character of pagan origin. In Syracuse, Sicily, the Albero della Cuccagna (cf. "Greasy pole") is held during the month of May, a feast celebrated to commemorate the victory over the Athenians led by Nicias. However, Angelo de Gubernatis, in his work Mythology of Plants, believes that without doubt the festival was previous to that of said victory.

It is a celebration that dates back to ancient peoples, and is very integrated with the rhythms of nature, such as the Celts (celebrating Beltane), Etruscans and Ligures, in which the arrival of summer was of great importance.

Poland

In Poland, there is a state holiday on 1 May.[20][21] It is currently celebrated without a specific connotation, and as such it is May Day. However, due to historical connotations, most of the celebrations are focused around Labour Day festivities. It is customary for labour activists and left-wing political parties to organize parades in cities and towns across Poland on this day. The holiday is also commonly referred to as "Labour Day" ("Święto Pracy").

In Poland, May Day is closely followed by May 3rd Constitution Day. These two dates combined often result in a long weekend called "Majówka". People often travel, and "Majówka" is unofficially considered the start of the barbecuing season in Poland. Between these two, on 2 May, though formerly a working day, there is now a patriotic holiday, the Day of the Polish Flag (Dzień Flagi Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej), introduced by a Parliamentary Act of February 20, 2004. May Day has a public holiday, too.

Portugal

"Maias" is a superstition throughout Portugal, with special focus on the northern territories and rarely elsewhere. Maias is the dominant naming in Northern Portugal, but it may be referred to by other names, including Dia das Bruxas (Witches' day), O Burro (the Donkey, referring to an evil spirit) or the last of April, as the local traditions preserved to this day occur on that evening only. People put the yellow flowers of Portuguese brooms, the bushes are known as giestas. The flowers of the bush are known as Maias, which are placed on doors or gates and every doorway of houses, windows, granaries, currently also cars, which the populace collect on the evening of 30 April when the Portuguese brooms are blooming, to defend those places from bad spirits, witches and the evil eye. The placement of the May flower or bush in the doorway must be done before midnight.

These festivities are a continuum of the "Os Maios" of Galiza. In ancient times, this was done while playing traditional night-music. In some places, children were dressed in these flowers and went from place to place begging for money or bread. On May 1, people also used to sing "Cantigas de Maio", traditional songs related to this day and the whole month of May.

The origin of this tradition can be traced to the Catholic Church story of Mary and Joseph fleeing to Egypt to protect Jesus from Herod. It was said that brooms could be found at the door of the house holding Jesus, but Herod soldiers arrived to the place, they found every door decorated with brooms.

Romania

On May Day, the Romanians celebrate the arminden (or armindeni), the beginning of summer, symbolically tied with the protection of crops and farm animals. The name comes from Slavonic Jeremiinŭ dĭnĭ, meaning prophet Jeremiah's day, but the celebration rites and habits of this day are apotropaic and pagan (possibly originating in the cult of the god Pan).

The day is also called ziua pelinului ("mugwort day") or ziua bețivilor ("drunkards' day") and it is celebrated to ensure good wine in autumn and, for people and farm animals alike, good health and protection from the elements of nature (storms, hail, illness, pests). People would have parties in natural surroundings, with lăutari (fiddlers) for those who could afford it. Then it is customary to roast and eat lamb, along with new mutton cheese, and to drink mugwort-flavoured wine, or just red wine, to refresh the blood and get protection from diseases. On the way back, the men wear lilac or mugwort flowers on their hats.

Other apotropaic rites include, in some areas of the country, people washing their faces with the morning dew (for good health) and adorning the gates for good luck and abundance with green branches or with birch saplings (for the houses with maiden girls). The entries to the animals' shelters are also adorned with green branches. All branches are left in place until the wheat harvest when they are used in the fire which will bake the first bread from the new wheat.

On May Day eve, country women do not work in the field as well as in the house to avoid devastating storms and hail coming down on the village.

Arminden is also ziua boilor (oxen day) and thus the animals are not to be used for work, or else they could die or their owners could get ill.

It is said that the weather is always good on May Day to allow people to celebrate.

Serbia

"Prvomajski uranak" (Reveille on May 1st) is a folk tradition and feast that consists of the fact that on 1 May, people go in the nature or even leave the day before and spend the night with a camp fire. Most of the time, a dish is cooked in a kettle or in a barbecue. Among Serbs this holiday is widespread. Almost every town in Serbia has its own traditional first-of-may excursion sites, and most often these are green areas outside the city.[22]

Spain

May Day is celebrated throughout the country as Los Mayos (lit. "the Mays") often in a similar way to "Fiesta de las Cruces" in many parts of Hispanic America. By way of example, in Galicia, the festival (os maios, in the local language) consists of different representations around a decorated tree or sculpture. People sing popular songs (also called maios,) making mentions to social and political events during the past year, sometimes under the form of a converse, while they walk around the sculpture with the percussion of two sticks. In Lugo[23] and in the village of Vilagarcía de Arousa[24] it was usual to ask a tip to the attendees, which used to be a handful of dry chestnuts (castañas maiolas), walnuts or hazelnuts. Today the tradition became a competition where the best sculptures and songs receive a prize.[25]

In the Galician city of Ourense this day is celebrated traditionally on 3 May, the day of the Holy Cross, that in the Christian tradition replaced the tree "where the health, life and resurrection are," according to the introit of that day's mass.[26]

Sweden

The more traditional festivities have moved to the day before, Walpurgis Night ("Valborgsmässoafton"), known in some locales as simply "Last of April" and often celebrated with bonfires and a good bit of drinking. The first of May is instead celebrated as International Workers' Day.

David Icke

David Icke

David Vaughan Icke (/ˈdeɪvɪd vɔːn aɪk/; born 29 April 1952) is an English conspiracy theorist,[1][2][3][4] and former footballer and sports broadcaster.[5] He is the author of over 20 books and has lectured in over 25 countries.[6][7]

In 1990, while spokesman for the Green Party, he visited a psychic who he said told him he had been placed on earth for a purpose and would begin to receive messages from the spirit world.[8] These events led him to announce the following year that he was a "Son of the Godhead"[5] and that the world would soon be devastated by tidal waves and earthquakes, a prediction he repeated on the BBC's primetime show Wogan.[9][10] The show turned him from a respected household name into the subject of widespread public ridicule.[11]

Over the next 11 years Icke wrote The Robots' Rebellion (1994), And the Truth Shall Set You Free (1995), The Biggest Secret (1999), and Children of the Matrix (2001), in which he developed his worldview of New Age conspiracism.[12] His endorsement of the antisemitic forgery The Protocols of the Elders of Zion in The Robots' Rebellion and And the Truth Shall Set You Free led his publisher to refuse to publish his books, which were self-published thereafter.[13]

Icke believes that the universe is made up of "vibrational" energy and consists of an infinite number of dimensions that share the same space.[14][15][16] He claims that an inter-dimensional race of reptilian beings called the Archons (or Anunnaki) have hijacked the earth, and that a genetically modified human–Archon hybrid race of shape-shifting reptilians known as the Babylonian Brotherhood, the Illuminati, or the "elite", manipulate global events to keep humans in constant fear so the Archons can feed off the "negative energy" this creates.[14][17][18][19]

He claims many prominent public figures belong to the Babylonian Brotherhood and are propelling humanity toward an Orwellian global fascist state, or New World Order, a post-truth era where freedom of speech is ended.[8][14][20][21] Icke believes that the only way this 'Archontic' influence can be defeated is if people wake up to the truth and fill their hearts with love.[14] Critics have accused Icke of being a Holocaust denier and an antisemite, with his theories about reptilians being a deliberate "code"; Icke denies these claims.[22][23]

Icke's Facebook page was deleted on 1 May 2020.[24] Facebook stated: "We have removed this Page for repeatedly violating our policies on harmful misinformation

Early life

Family and education

The middle son of three boys born seven years apart, Icke was born in Leicester General Hospital to Beric Vaughan Icke and Barbara J. Icke, née Cooke, who were married in Leicester in 1951. Beric Icke had wanted to be a doctor, but in part due to the family's limited funds, he joined the Royal Air Force as a medical orderly.[26] In 1943, after an aircraft crashed into the Chipping Warden airfield in Northamptonshire, Acting Squadron Leader Frederick Thomas Moore and Leading Aircraftman Beric Icke entered a burning aircraft without protective clothing and saved the life of a crew member trapped inside.[n 1] The injured Frederick Moore, who rendered first aid, was awarded an MBE for gallantry, and Beric Icke was awarded a BEM.

After the war Beric became a clerk in the Gents clock factory. The family lived in a terraced house on Lead Street in the centre of Leicester,[28] an area that was demolished in the mid-1950s as part of the city's slum clearance.[29] When David Icke was three, around 1955, they moved to the Goodwood estate, one of the council estates the post-war Labour government built. "To say we were skint," he wrote in 1993, "is like saying it is a little chilly at the North Pole."[28] He recalls having to hide under a window or chair when the council man came for the rent; after knocking, the rent man would walk around the house peering through windows. His mother never explained that it was about the rent; she just told Icke to hide. He wrote in 2003 that he still gets a fright when someone knocks on the door.[30]

Icke attended Whitehall Infant School, and then Whitehall Junior School.[31][30]

Football

Icke has said he made no effort at school, but when he was nine he was chosen for the junior school's third-year football team. He writes that this was the first time he had succeeded at anything, and he came to see football as his way out of poverty. He played in goal, which he wrote suited the loner in him and gave him a sense of living on the edge between hero and villain.[33]

After failing his 11-plus exam in 1963, he was sent to the city's Crown Hills Secondary Modern (rather than the local grammar school), where he was given a trial for the Leicester Boys Under-14 team.[34] He left school at 15 after being talent-spotted by Coventry City, who signed him up in 1967 as their youth team's goalkeeper. He also played for Oxford United's reserve team and Northampton Town, on loan from Coventry.[35]

Rheumatoid arthritis in his left knee, which spread to the right knee, ankles, elbows, wrists and hands, stopped him from making a career out of football. Despite stating that he was often in agony during training, Icke managed to play part-time for Hereford United, including in the first team when they were in the fourth, and later in the third, division of the English Football League.[36] He was earning up to £33 a week.[37] But in 1973, at the age of 21, the pain in his joints became so severe that he was forced to retire.[38]

First marriage

Icke met his first wife, Linda Atherton, in May 1971 at a dance at the Chesford Grange Hotel near Leamington Spa. Shortly after they met, Icke left home following one of a number of frequent arguments he had started having with his father. His father was upset that Icke's arthritis was interfering with his football career. Icke moved into a bedsit and worked in a travel agency, travelling to Hereford twice a week in the evenings to play football.[39]

Icke and Atherton were married on 30 September 1971, four months after they met.[40] Their daughter was born in March 1975, followed by one son in December 1981, and another in November 1992.[41]

The couple divorced in 2001 but remained good friends, and Atherton continued to work as Icke's business manager.[42]

Journalism, sports broadcasting

The loss of Icke's position with Hereford meant that he and his wife had to sell their home, and for several weeks they lived apart, each moving in with their parents. In 1973 Icke found a job as a reporter with the weekly Leicester Advertiser, through a contact who was a sports editor at the Daily Mail.[43] He moved on to the Leicester News Agency, did some work for BBC Radio Leicester as its football reporter,[44] then worked his way up through the Loughborough Monitor, the Leicester Mercury and BRMB Radio in Birmingham.[45]

In 1976 Icke worked for two months in Saudi Arabia, helping with the national football team. It was supposed to be a longer-term position, but he missed his wife and daughter and decided not to return after his first holiday back to the UK.[46] BRMB gave him his job back, after which he successfully applied to Midlands Today at the BBC's Pebble Mill Studios in Birmingham, a job that included on-air appearances.[47] One of the earliest stories he covered there was the murder of Carl Bridgewater, the paperboy shot during a robbery in 1978.[48]

In 1981 Icke became a sports presenter for the BBC's national programme Newsnight, which had begun the previous year. Two years later, on 17 January 1983, he appeared on the first edition of the BBC's Breakfast Time, British television's first national breakfast show, and presented the sports news there until 1985. In 1983 he co-hosted Grandstand, at the time the BBC's flagship national sports programme.[49] He also published his first book that year, It's a Tough Game, Son!, about how to break into football.[50]

Icke and his family moved in 1982 to Ryde on the Isle of Wight.[51] His relationship with Grandstand was short-lived – he wrote that a new editor arrived in 1983 who appeared not to like him – but he continued working for BBC Sport until 1990, often on bowls and snooker programmes, and at the 1988 Summer Olympics.[52] Icke was by then a household name, but has said that a career in television began to lose its appeal to him; he found television workers insecure, shallow and sometimes vicious.[53]

In August 1990 his contract with the BBC was terminated when he initially refused to pay the Community Charge (also known as the "poll tax"), a local tax Margaret Thatcher's government introduced that year. He ultimately paid it, but his announcement that he was willing to go to prison rather than pay prompted the BBC, by charter an impartial public-service broadcaster, to distance itself from him.[54][55]

Green Party, Betty Shine

Icke began to flirt with alternative medicine and New Age philosophies in the 1980s in an effort to relieve his arthritis, and this encouraged his interest in Green politics. Within six months of joining the Green Party, he was given a position as one of its four principal speakers, positions created in lieu of a single leader.[56]

His second book, It Doesn't Have To Be Like This, an outline of his views on the environment, was published in 1989, and he was regularly invited to high-profile events. That year he discussed animal rights during a televised debate at the Royal Institution, alongside Tom Regan, Mary Warnock and Germaine Greer,[57] and in 1990 his name appeared on advertisements for a children's charity, along with Audrey Hepburn, Woody Allen and other celebrities.[58]

Despite his successful media career, Icke wrote that 1989 was a time of considerable personal despair, and it was during this period that he said he began to feel a presence around him.[59] He often describes how he felt it while alone in a hotel room in March 1990, and finally asked: "If there is anybody here, will you please contact me because you are driving me up the wall!" Days later, in a newsagent's shop in Ryde, he felt a force pull his feet to the ground and heard a voice guide him toward some books. One of them was Mind to Mind (1989) by Betty Shine, a psychic healer in Brighton. He read the book, then wrote to her requesting a consultation about his arthritis.[60][61][62][63]

Icke visited Shine four times. During the third meeting, on 29 March 1990, Icke claims to have felt something like a spider's web on his face, and Shine told him she had a message from Wang Ye Lee of the spirit world.[64][65] Icke had been sent to heal the earth, she said, and would become famous but would face opposition. The spirit world was going to pass ideas to him, which he would speak about to others. He would write five books in three years; in 20 years a new flying machine would allow us to go wherever we wanted and time would have no meaning; and there would be earthquakes in unusual places, because the inner earth was being destabilised by having oil taken from under the seabed.[61][66][67]

In February 1991 Icke visited a pre-Inca Sillustani burial ground near Puno, Peru, where he felt drawn to a particular circle of waist-high stones. As he stood in the circle he had two thoughts: that people would be talking about this in 100 years, and that it would be over when it rained. His body shook as though plugged into an electrical socket, he wrote, and new ideas poured into him. Then it started raining and the experience ended. He described it as the kundalini (a term from Hindu yoga) activating his chakras, or energy centres, triggering a higher level of consciousness

ساتياجيت راي

ساتياجيت راي

ساتيا جيت راي (بالبنغالية: সত্যজিৎ রায়)‏‏ (2 مايو 1921 - 23 أبريل 1992) هو مخرج هندي من القومية البنغالية، يُعتبر من بين أشهر المخرجين السينمائيين الهنود داخل الهند وخارجها حيث اكتشفه العالم من خلال أفلام كبيرة منها أغنية الطريق وعدو الشعب وصالون الموسيقى وفيلمه الأخير الزائر. توفي راي يوم 23 ابريل 1992.

سيرة شخصية

الحياة المبكرة والتعليم

إن سلالة المخرج "ساتياجيت راي" معروفة في البلاد قبل ما لا يقل عن عشرة أجيال مضت. جده "أوبندكريشار راي تشودري" كان كاتبا ورساما وفيلسوفا وناشرا وعالم فلك. فضلا عن أنه كان الزعيم الديني لتيار "براهمو ساماج". كان والده "سوكومار راي" (ابن أوبيندراكيشور)، شاعرا وقاصا معروفا له قصائد فكاهية مشهورة باللغة البنغالية. وكان في العائلة أيضا رسامون ونقاد. المخرج "ساتياجيت راي" هو ابن "سوكومار" ووالدته "سوبرافا راي". ولد في مدينة كلكتا. عندما كان "ساتياجيت" بعمر ثلاث سنوات فقط، توفي والده. وكان على أمه "سوبرافا" أن تنفق على الأسرة وتعيلها.

درس "راي" الاقتصاد في "كلية الرئاسة" في كلكتا، ولكن اهتمامه ظل دائما هو الفنون الجميلة. في عام 1940، أصرت والدته على أن يكمل دراسته في "جامعة بهاراتيا" الحكومية التي أنشأها غوروديف رابيندراناث طاغور عام 1921. أحب "راي" بيئة كلكتا البسيطة، ولم يكن متحمسا لعالم "شانتينيكيتان" الفكري الراقي. بسبب إصرار والدته واحترامه لطاغور، قرر أخيرا الذهاب إلى بلدة "شانتينيكيتان" (160 كم شمال كلكتا) حيث الجامعة المسماة فيسفا-بهاراتي (التي تخرج منها أمارتيا سن وغيره). كانت الثقافة الفنية في "شانتينيكيتان" شرقية بحتة. يذكر "راي" في وقت لاحق أنه تعلم الكثير من الرسامين الشهيرين "ناندلال بوس" و"بينود بيهاري موخرجي". وقد قدم "راي" في وقت لاحق فيلما وثائقيا عن حياة الرسام "موخرجي" عنوانه "العين الداخلية". بعد رؤيته للمعالم الفنية الهندية مثل كهوف إليفانتا في قرية أجانتا، ومغارات إلورا أصبح من محبي الفن الهندي.

الرسم

قبل الانتهاء من الدراسة التي كانت مدتها خمس سنوات، قطع "راي" دراسته في عام 1943، وغادر "شانتينيكيتان" وعاد إلى كلكتا حيث تم تعيينه في وكالة إعلان بريطانية. بدأت في وظيفة كان مسماها "مشرف تصاميم مبتدئ" وكان راتبها ثمانين روبية شهريا فقط. على الرغم من أنه أحب العمل على تصميم الإعلانات وكان يلقى معاملة جيدة إلى حد ما، كان هناك بعض الحزازيات بين موظفي الوكالة البريطانيين والهنود، لأن الموظفين البريطانيين حصلوا على أجور أعلى. إلى جانب ذلك، رأى "راي" أن "عملاء الوكالة كانوا في الغالب أغبياء". حوالي عام 1943، أسس "دك غوبتا" دار نشر "مطبوعات البصمة". طلب "غوبتا" من "راي" العمل لديه وتصميم أغلفة الكتب الجديدة التي تنشرها الدار، وأعطى الحرية الفنية الكاملة.

صمم "راي" أغلفة الكثير من الكتب المعروفة، من ذلك: كتاب جيم كوربت "آكلوا لحوم البشر في كومون"، وكتاب جواهر لال نهرو "اكتشاف الهند" كتاب التاريخ المعروف. كما عمل على تصميم غلاف نسخة الأطفال من الرواية البنغالية الشهيرة "أغاني على الطريق"، التي سميت في نسخة الأطفال "صفارة المانجو". كان "راي" معجبا جدا بهذه الرواية. حتى أنه قدم أول فيلم له مقتبسا من هذه الرواية. بالإضافة إلى تصميم غلاف الرواية، رسم أيضا الصور الداخلية لهذا الكتاب. العديد من هذه الصور أظهرها لاحقا في مشاهد الفيلم.

كما قدم "راي" خطين جديدين هما "راي رومان" و "راي بيجار". فاز روي بجائزة في مسابقة دولية في عام 1970. في كلكتا، كان "راي" يعتبر رساما ماهرا. كان "راي" يرسم الصور في كتبه ويصمم أغلفتها بنفسه، كما أنه كان يقوم برسم المواد الدعائية لأفلامه وكان يرسم قفيشاتها.

Satyajit Ray

Satyajit Ray

Satyajit Ray (Bengali pronunciation: [ˈʃɔtːodʒit ˈrai̯] (About this soundlisten); 2 May 1921 – 23 April 1992) was an Indian filmmaker, screenwriter, music composer, graphic artist, lyricist and author, widely regarded as one of the greatest filmmakers of all time.[2][3][4] Ray was born in Calcutta into a Bengali family which was prominent in the field of arts and literature. Starting his career as a commercial artist, Ray was drawn into independent filmmaking after meeting French filmmaker Jean Renoir and viewing Vittorio De Sica's Italian neorealist film Bicycle Thieves (1948) during a visit to London.

Ray directed 36 films, including feature films, documentaries and shorts. He was also a fiction writer, publisher, illustrator, calligrapher, music composer, graphic designer and film critic. He authored several short stories and novels, meant primarily for young children and teenagers. Feluda, the sleuth, and Professor Shonku, the scientist in his science fiction stories, are popular fictional characters created by him. He was awarded an honorary degree by Oxford University.

Ray's first film, Pather Panchali (1955), won eleven international prizes, including the inaugural Best Human Document award at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival. This film, along with Aparajito (1956) and Apur Sansar (The World of Apu) (1959), form The Apu Trilogy. Ray did the scripting, casting, scoring, and editing, and designed his own credit titles and publicity material. Ray received many major awards in his career, including 32 Indian National Film Awards, a Golden Lion, a Golden Bear, 2 Silver Bears, a number of additional awards at international film festivals and award ceremonies, and an Academy Honorary Award in 1992. The Government of India honored him with the Bharat Ratna, its highest civilian award, in 1992. Ray had received many noticeable awards and gained a prestigious position over his life time.

Family history

From the history of the Ray family, it is known that one of their earlier ancestors Shri Ramsunder Deo (Deb) was a native of Chakdah, Nadia District, Bengal (now in West Bengal, India). From there he migrated to Sherpur in East Bengal in search of fate. The Zamindar of Jashodal, Raja Gunichandra met him in the Zamindar House of Sherpur and was immediately impressed by him. He took Ramsunder with him to his estate in Jashodal, gave him a part of his Zamindari and made him his son-in-law.[5][6]

Early life and background

Satyajit Ray's ancestry can be traced back for at least ten generations.[7] Ray's grandfather, Upendrakishore Ray was a writer, illustrator, philosopher, publisher, amateur astronomer and a leader of the Brahmo Samaj, a religious and social movement in nineteenth century Bengal. He also set up a printing press by the name of U. Ray and Sons, which formed a crucial backdrop to Satyajit's life. Sukumar Ray, Upendrakishore's son and father of Satyajit, was a pioneering Bengali writer of nonsense rhyme (Abol tabol) and children's literature, an illustrator and a critic. Ray was born to Sukumar and Suprabha Ray in Calcutta.[citation needed]

Satyajit Ray's family had acquired the name 'Ray'(originally 'Rai') from the Mughals. Although they were Bengali Kayasthas, the Rays were 'Vaishnavas' (worshippers of Vishnu) as against majority Bengali Kayasthas who were 'Shaktos' (worshippers of the Shakti or Shiva) .[8]

Sukumar Ray died when Satyajit was barely three, and the family survived on Suprabha Ray's meager income. Ray studied at Ballygunge Government High School, Calcutta, (now Kolkata) and completed his BA in economics at Presidency College, Calcutta then affiliated with the University of Calcutta , though his interest was always in the fine arts. In 1940, his mother insisted that he study at Visva-Bharati University in Santiniketan, founded by Rabindranath Tagore. Ray was reluctant to go, due to his fondness for Calcutta and the low regard for the intellectual life at Santiniketan.[9] His mother's persuasiveness and his respect for Tagore finally convinced him to try. In Santiniketan, Ray came to appreciate Oriental art. He later admitted that he learned much from the famous painters Nandalal Bose[10] and Benode Behari Mukherjee. Later he produced a documentary film, The Inner Eye, about Mukherjee. His visits to Ajanta, Ellora and Elephanta stimulated his admiration for Indian art.

In 1943, Ray started work at D.J. Keymer, a British-run advertising agency, as a "junior visualiser," earning eighty rupees a month. Although he liked visual design (graphic design) and he was mostly treated well, there was tension between the British and Indian employees of the firm. The British were better paid, and Ray felt that "the clients were generally stupid."[12] Later, Ray worked for Signet Press, a new publishing house started by D. K. Gupta. Gupta asked Ray to create cover designs for books to be published by Signet Press and gave him complete artistic freedom. Ray designed covers for many books, including Jibanananda Das's Banalata Sen, and Rupasi Bangla, Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay's Chander Pahar, Jim Corbett's Maneaters of Kumaon, and Jawaharlal Nehru's Discovery of India. He worked on a children's version of Pather Panchali, a classic Bengali novel by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay, renamed as Aam Antir Bhepu (The mango-seed whistle). Designing the cover and illustrating the book, Ray was deeply influenced by the work. He used it as the subject of his first film, and featured his illustrations as shots in his ground-breaking film.[13]

Along with Chidananda Dasgupta and others, Ray founded the Calcutta Film Society in 1947. They screened many foreign films, many of which Ray watched and seriously studied. He befriended the American GIs stationed in Calcutta during World War II, who kept him informed about the latest American films showing in the city. He came to know a RAF employee, Norman Clare, who shared Ray's passion for films, chess and western classical music.[14]

In 1949, Ray married Bijoya Das, his first cousin and long-time sweetheart.[15] The couple had a son, Sandip Ray, who is now a film director. In the same year, French director Jean Renoir came to Calcutta to shoot his film The River. Ray helped him to find locations in the countryside. Ray told Renoir about his idea of filming Pather Panchali, which had long been on his mind, and Renoir encouraged him in the project.[16] In 1950, D.J. Keymer sent Ray to London to work at its headquarters office. During his six months in London, Ray watched 99 films. Among these was the neorealist film Ladri di biciclette (Bicycle Thieves) (1948) by Vittorio De Sica, which had a profound impact on him. Ray later said that he came out of the theater determined to become a film-maker.[17]

Career

The Apu years (1950–59)

ديفيد بيكهام

ديفيد بيكهام

ديفيد بيكهام (بالإنجليزية: David Beckham)‏، (مواليد 2 مايو 1975) لاعب كرة قدم وقد كان يلعب في ريال مدريد الإسباني بعد أن انتقل إليه قادما من مانشستر يونايتد الإنجليزي، لعب في نادي لوس أنجلوس جلاكسي وقام النادي بإعارته إلى نادي اي سي ميلان عام 2009. تزوج من مغنية البوب فكتوريا بيكهام التي كانت مع فرقة سبايس غيرلز. محترفا مع مانشستر عام 1993 واستمر معهم لمدة 10 سنوات حقق فيها العديد من البطولات المحلية والقارية. في عام 2003، انتقل إلى نادي ريال مدريد الإسباني وحقق معهم بطولة الدوري الأسباني لموسم 2006 - 2007. وقد اختاره بيليه ضمن قائمة أفضل 125 لاعب حي في مارس 2004. وُصِف في 2002 بأنه أكثر رجل "متروسكشوال" بواسطة الرجل الذي اخترع هذا المصطلح. كما وصف بهذا المصطلح بواسطة مقالات كثيرة بعدها.

مولده و نشأته

ولد ديفيد روبيرت جوزيف بيكهام في الثاني من مايو 1975 بمدينة ليتونسون شرق لندن وهو المكان الذي نشأ وتربى فيه مع عائلته حيث تلقى تعليمه الأولى وتعلم مبادئ كرة القدم وأساسيته. يمتاز بيكهام بتسديداته الصاروخية وكراته العرضية الدقيقة وسرعته ومهاراته العالية في التمرير. والده كان "ميكانيكياً" صاحب ورشة لكن حبه الشديد لكرة القدم جعله يحلم بأن يدخل أحد أبنائه مجال هذه اللعبة. بدأت شمس بيكهام بالإشراق كلاعب كرة قدم في سن مبكرة جداً وذلك من خلال أهدافه ومهاراته وهذا لم يكن وليد الصدفة حيث أن الموهبة متأصلة فيه منذ طفولته وكل ما يذكره بيكهام في صغره هو مساعدة والده له ورفع معنوياته ودفعه لاكتساب المزيد من الخبرة والمهارة في عالم كرة القدم. مثل ديفيد بيكهام في صغره العديد من الفرق ومنها فريق مدرسته رغم صغر سنه وكان متألقاً بتسديداته ومهارته ، وأول لقاء تم بين ديفيد بيكهام وناديه السابق مانشستر يونايتد كان في ديسمبر 1986 في مسابقة لاكتشاف المواهب والمهارات حيث برز هذا النجم الصغير وتميز بين أقرآنه ولفت الأنظار بمستواه وموهبته وكان عمره وقتها 11 عاماً. وحصل على جائزة من قبل اللجنة وانضم للناشئين في رحلة تدريبية بالقطار إلى مدينة برشلونة الإسبانية استمرت لمدة أسبوعين بهدف اكسابه هو وزملائه المزيد من الخبرة وتعويده على أجواء كرة القدم. التحق بيكهام بالمان يونايتد أو الشياطين الحمر رسمياً في عام 1991 بعد نجاحه بتفوق في تدريبات مدرسة توتنهام هوتسبير ، وبذلك يكون حقق حلم حياته بالسير على خطى النجوم الكبار الذين كان يتابعهم ويحترمهم.

أول ظهور له عام 92

كان أول ظهور له في البطولة الودية لكأس كوبا عام 1992 وشارك مع فريقه وحقق كأس إف إي لفئة الشباب مع زملائه رايان جيجز وبول سكولز وغاري نيفيل وساهم في فوز الفريق عندما سجل هدفاً في الشوط الثاني بمرمى كريستال بالاس ليثبت بأنه نجم قادم وبقوة لملاعب كرة القدم. قاده هذا للظهور لأول مرة مع الفريق الأول في الموسم التالي ، وأصبح لاعباً محترفاً بعد أربعة أشهر فقط من أول مشاركة رسمية له مع الفريق الأول .

مشواره الاحترافي

بدأ بيكهام مشواره الاحترافي مع المان يونايتد عام 1994 وكان أول ظهور له في الدوري الإنجليزي ضد فريق ليدز يونايتد على أرضه وشارك في ذلك الموسم في أربعة لقاءات ثم أعير لنادي بريستون الإنجليزي وشارك معه في العديد من المباريات وسجل هدفين. وفي العام التالي عاد بيكهام لمانشستر بعد المستويات القوية التي قدمها مع بريستون وضمن له مكاناً في التشكيل الأساسي كلاعب خط وسط وشارك في 33 مباراة سجل خلالها 7 أهداف. بدأ بيكهام يثبت خطاه في مسيرته نحو عالم النجومية حيث لعب 36 مباراة سجل خلالها 7 أهداف موسم 96-97 ونتيجة لهذا التألق تم استدعاؤه للمنتخب الإنجليزي وشارك معه في التصفيات المؤهلة لكأس العالم وساهم في وصول منتخب بلاده للنهائيات وحصل على جائزة أفضل لاعب شاب في إنجلترا وعلى المركز الثاني في التصويت السنوي لأفضل لاعب وساهم بشكل قوي وفعال في تحقيق بطولة الدوري لفريقه. وأصبح النجم الأول في المان يونايتد ، وشارك مع منتخب بلاده في نهائيات كأس العالم بفرنسا عام 1998 بقيادة المدرب جرين هودل الذي أبقى ديفيد أسيراً لدكة الاحتياط في أول لقائين للمنتخب الإنجليزي في البطولة. وعند إشراكه في اللقاء الثالث أمام كولومبيا سجل هدفاً من ضربة حرة رائعة أهلت منتخب بلاده للدور الثاني من البطولة واعتبرته الصحافة بطلاً وطنياً. بعد ذلك شارك بيكهام أمام المنتخب الأرجنتيني ولكن طرده في المباراة بعد الخدعة التي قام بها دييقو سيموني الدولي الأرجنتيني جعل من بيكهام أحد أكبر أسباب خروج إنجلترا من كأس العالم في عيون الشارع الرياضي في بريطانيا بعد خسارتهم من الأرجنتين بركلات الترجيح. وتوقع خبراء كرة القدم بأن يغادر النجم الموهوب الملاعب الإنجليزية نظراً لما تعرض له من انتقادات ولكنه سرعان ما أثبت للجميع بأنهم مخطئون في حقه وفي نجوميته عندما لعب أول مباريات الدوري الإنجليزي واستقبلته الجماهير بصافرات الاستهجان ورد بهدف خرافي لا يحرزه إلا نجم كبير من طراز ديفيد بيكهام وذلك عندما انبرى لتسديد ضربة حرة أمام فريق ليستر أسكنها في الزاوية العلوية لحارس المرمى وسط دهشة الجميع.

أكبر فرحة كروية لديفد

في عام 98-99 لعب 34 مباراة وسجل 6 أهداف وساهم في تحقيق الدوري والكأس وبطولة أوروبا أبطال الدوري للمان يونايتد ولا أحد ينسى النهائي المثير في بطولة أوروبا حينما كان مانشستر مهزوماً من بايرن ميونيخ بهدف ليقلب النتيجة رأساً على عقب والمباراة تلفظ أنفاسها الأخيرة ويحصل على الكأس. في العام التالي لعب 31 مباراة وسجل 7 أهداف وكان موسماً ناجحاً بكل المقاييس للنجم الإنجليزي وواجه اللاعب العديد من المشاكل من قبل الصحافة والإعلام بسبب قصة شعره المميزة مما دفعه لحلاقة شعر رأسه ليتخلص من الأسئلة والمشاكل الصحفية بخصوصها إلا أن شركات الدعاية والإعلان التي وقعت معه عقوداً وصورت معه إعلانات لشامبو الشعر قامت برفع دعاوي قضائية لمحاسبة النجم على حلق رأسه وتغيير شكله ولكنها لم تقبل لعدم وجود شروط تمنع بيكهام من حلق شعر رأسه.

تألقه

وواصل التألق محلياً وعلى الساحة الدولية وساهم بشكل كبير ومؤثر في تأهل إنجلترا لنهائيات كأس العالم بكوريا واليابان عام 2002 بقيادته للمنتخب وبأهدافه الصاروخية. وفي عام 2001/2002 لعب 28 مباراة وسجل خلالها 11 هدفاً وشارك في نهائيات كأس العالم صفع بيكهام فيرون و ديساييه و غيرهم كثير من قادة المنتخبات صفعة موجعة عندما تأهل إلى دور الثمانية بينما لم يتجاوزوا هم الدور الأول إلا أن حلمه لم يتحقق بعد خروج منتخب إنجلترا أمام المنتخب البرازيلي في دور الثمانية عن طريق هدف صدفة 100% للاعب رونالدينهو ويبقى الحلم بأن يحقق كأس العالم مع إنجلترا قائماً وسيسعى إلى تحقيقه مستقبلاً. وفي آخر موسم له مع مانشستر واصل النجم ديفيد بيكهام ابداعه وتألقه المعهود إلا أنه تعرض لكسر في الضلع أبعده عن الملاعب أسابيع وغيابه ترك أثراً كبيراً في وسط ميدان الشياطين الحمر.

مع ريال مدريد

في الموسم التالي قدمت لديفيد مجموعة من العروض الرائعة والمغرية لتأتي الفاجعة ويعلن انتقاله للريال في وسط غضب جماهير مانشستر و بقدومه إلى ريال مدريد حصل على الرقم 23 و كانت بدايته مع الريال قوية جدا و الجدير بالذكر ان القميص 23 الذي طرحه ريال مدريد حقق مبيعات قياسية تجاوزت نصف مليون يورو في أول 8 ساعات من توقيع العقد.

تألقه مع ريال مدريد

استطاع بيكهام ان يحصل مع ريال مدريد على كأس الانتركونتينانتال و كأس السوبر الأسباني 2003 و الدوري الأسباني 2007.

اغنى لاعب في العالم

لم يبدأ بيكهام من القمة بل كان لاعباً مغموراً وبدايته متواضعة وصنع أمجاده وشهرته بنفسه من خلال بروزه مع مانشستر يونايتد ومنتخب إنجلترا ليصبح من أغنى لاعبي العالم ، وأكثرهم دخلاً . ولعل أكبر قفزة في حياة ديفيد وأقوى قرار قام باتخاذه هو زواجه بمغنية فرقة التوابل (سبايس جيرل) فكتوريا آدمز (فكتوريا بيكهام حالياً) حيث توجهت جميع الأنظار وبدأ الجمهور والصحافة والإعلام يتهافتون على أخبار نجمة البوب ونجم كرة القدم حتى بدأوا يهتمون بأدق تفاصيل حياتهم الخاصة وفي مارس 1999 انجبا طفلهما الأول بروكلين وبعد سنتين تقريباً أنجبا ابنهما الثاني روميو.

أسباب اختيار بيكهام لأرقامه 7 و 23

عندما احترف بيكهام مع مانشستر يونايتد اختار الرقم 10 بدلاً من 7 الذي كان يشغله قائد الفريق، آنذاك اريك كانتونا وعند اعتزاله ارتدى بيكهام القميص رقم 7 بسبب توافق هذا الرقم مع عدد حروف اسمه BECKHAM، وقد كان الرقم المفضل لديه، لكن عندما انتقل للريال كان الرقم 7 يشغله راؤول وكان بيكهام قريب من اتخاذ الرقم 77، لكنّه فضل الرقم 23 إعجاباً بأسطورة كرة السلة الأمريكية مايكل جوردان

لكن البعض رجّح ذلك لعدة أسباب

ولادة ابنه الأكبر بروكلين عندما دخل بيكهام عامه الثالث والعشرين

أول ظهور له مع المان يونايتد كان في 23 من سبتمبر 1992

الهدف الذي سجله ضد اليونان وأهل منتخب بلاده إلى كأس العالم كان على بعد 23 ياردة.

إعجاب اللاعب الإنجليزي بيكهام بأسطورة كرة السلة الأمريكية مايكل جوردان الذي يحمل الرقم 23.

إنجازات بيكهام

مع مانشستر يونايتد

بطولة الدوري مواسم(95\96، 96\97، 98\99، 99\2000 ,2000\2001، 2002\2003

كأس الإتحاد الإنجليزي سنة 96، 99

دوري أبطال أوروبا 98\99

كأس الإنتركونتيننتال سنة 1999

الدرع سنة 1993، 94، 96، 97

كأس الاتحاد الإنجليزي لفئة الشباب سنة 1992

مع ريال مدريد

السوبر الإسباني سنة 2003

الدوري الإسباني موسم 2006\07

الإنجازات الشخصية

لاعب السنة الشاب موسم 96\97

جائزة السير مات بوسبي للاعب السنة موسم 96\97

لاعب أوروبا لسنة 1999

لاعب السنة عام 2001 من الـ BBC

في قائمة أفضل 100 لاعب من الفيفاوالكره الذهيبه

وسام الامبراطورية البريطانية برتبة ضابط عام 2003

David Beckham

David Beckham

David Robert Joseph Beckham OBE[4] (UK: /ˈbɛkəm/;[5] born 2 May 1975) is an English former professional footballer, the current president of Inter Miami CF and co-owner of Salford City.[6] He played for Manchester United, Preston North End, Real Madrid, Milan, LA Galaxy, Paris Saint-Germain and the England national team, for which he held the appearance record for an outfield player until 2016. He is the first English player to win league titles in four countries: England, Spain, the United States and France. He retired in May 2013 after a 20-year career, during which he won 19 major trophies.[7][8]

Beckham's professional club career began with Manchester United, where he made his first-team debut in 1992 at age 17.[9] With United, he won the Premier League title six times, the FA Cup twice, and the UEFA Champions League in 1999.[9] He then played four seasons with Real Madrid,[10] winning the La Liga championship in his final season with the club.[11] In July 2007, Beckham signed a five-year contract with Major League Soccer club LA Galaxy.[12] While a Galaxy player, he spent two loan spells in Italy with Milan in 2009 and 2010. He was the first British footballer to play 100 UEFA Champions League games.[9] In international football, Beckham made his England debut on 1 September 1996 at the age of 21. He was captain for six years, earning 58 caps during his tenure.[13][14] He made 115 career appearances in total, appearing at three FIFA World Cup tournaments, in 1998, 2002 and 2006, and two UEFA European Championship tournaments, in 2000 and 2004.

Known for his range of passing, crossing ability and bending free-kicks as a right winger, Beckham has been hailed as one of the greatest and most recognisable midfielders of his generation, as well as one of the best set-piece specialists of all time.[15][16] He was runner-up in the Ballon d'Or in 1999, twice runner-up for FIFA World Player of the Year and in 2004 was named by Pelé in the FIFA 100 list of the world's greatest living players.[17][18][19] He was inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame in 2008. A global ambassador for the sport, Beckham is regarded as a British cultural icon.[20][21]

Beckham has consistently ranked among the highest earners in football, and in 2013 was listed as the highest-paid player in the world, having earned over $50 million in the previous 12 months.[22] He has been married to Victoria Beckham since 1999 and they have four children.[23] He has been a UNICEF UK ambassador since 2005, and in 2015 he launched 7: The David Beckham UNICEF Fund.[24] In 2014, MLS announced that Beckham and a group of investors would own Inter Miami CF, which began play in 2020.

Early life

Beckham was born at Whipps Cross University Hospital in Leytonstone, London, England.[26] He is the son of Sandra Georgina (née West; b. 1949), a hairdresser, and David Edward Alan "Ted" Beckham (b. Edmonton, London, 1948), a kitchen fitter, who married in the London Borough of Hackney in 1969.[27] He has an older sister, Lynne Georgina, and a younger sister, Joanne Louise. He regularly played football in Ridgeway Park, Chingford, as a child, and attended Chase Lane Primary School and Chingford County High School.[28] In a 2007 interview, Beckham said that, "At school whenever the teachers asked, 'What do you want to do when you're older?' I'd say, 'I want to be a footballer.' And they'd say, 'No, what do you really want to do, for a job?' But that was the only thing I ever wanted to do."[29] Beckham's maternal grandfather was Jewish,[30] and Beckham has referred to himself as "half Jewish"[31] and wrote in his autobiography "I've probably had more contact with Judaism than with any other religion".[32] In his book Both Feet on the Ground, he stated that growing up he attended church every week with his parents, because that was the only way he could play football for their team.[33]

His parents were fanatical Manchester United supporters who frequently travelled to Old Trafford from London to attend the team's home matches. David inherited his parents' love of Manchester United, and his main sporting passion was football. He attended one of Bobby Charlton's football schools in Manchester and won the chance to take part in a training session with Barcelona, as part of a talent competition. He played for a local youth team called Ridgeway Rovers, which was coached by his father, Stuart Underwood, and Steve Kirby. Beckham was a Manchester United mascot for a match against West Ham United in 1986. Young Beckham had trials with his local club Leyton Orient, Norwich City and attended Tottenham Hotspur's school of excellence. Tottenham Hotspur was the first club he played for. During a two-year period in which Beckham played for Brimsdown Rovers' youth team, he was named Under-15 Player of the Year in 1990.[34] He also attended Bradenton Preparatory Academy, but signed schoolboy forms at Manchester United on his 14th birthday, and subsequently signed a Youth Training Scheme contract on 8 July 1991.[35]

Club career

Manchester United

1991–1994: Youth and early career

Having signed for Manchester United as a trainee on 8 July 1991,[36] Beckham was part of a group of young players, including Ryan Giggs, Gary Neville, Phil Neville, Nicky Butt and Paul Scholes, who were coached by Eric Harrison, and helped the club win the FA Youth Cup in May 1992. Beckham scored Manchester United's second goal in the 30th minute of their 3–1 first-leg win of the final against Crystal Palace on 14 April 1992. In the second leg on 15 May, Beckham played a full 90-minutes of the fixture which ended 3–2 in favour of Manchester United and 6–3 on aggregate. Beckham's impact led to a first-team debut on 23 September 1992, as a substitute for Andrei Kanchelskis in a League Cup match against Brighton & Hove Albion. Shortly afterwards, Beckham signed as a professional on 23 January 1993.[36]

Manchester United again reached the final of the FA Youth Cup, where they faced Leeds United. The first leg was played on 10 May 1993, where Beckham started in Manchester United's 2–0 home loss but was replaced by substitute Robbie Savage. In the second leg on 13 May 1993, Beckham played the full 90 minutes of Manchester United's 2–1 defeat, which gave Leeds United a 4–1 aggregate score. Beckham also received honours with the club's reserve team when the squad won the league in 1994. In September 1994, Beckham made his first full appearance in the club's first team against Port Vale in a League Cup fixture. On 7 December 1994, Beckham made his UEFA Champions League debut, scoring a goal in a 4–0 victory at home to Galatasaray in the final game of the group stage. Despite the victory, however, they finished third out of four in their group, behind Barcelona.[37]

1994–1995: Loan to Preston North End

Beckham then went to Preston North End on loan for part of the 1994–95 season to get some first team experience. He impressed, scoring two goals in five appearances, notably scoring directly from a corner kick.[38]

1995–1996: Return to United and first Championship

Beckham returned to Manchester and made his Premier League debut for Manchester United on 2 April 1995, in a goalless draw against Leeds United. He played four times for United in the league that season, as they finished second behind Blackburn Rovers, missing out on a third successive Premier League title by a single point. He was not in the squad for the FA Cup final with Everton on 20 May, which United lost 1–0, leaving the club without a major trophy for the first time since 1989.[39]

United manager Sir Alex Ferguson had a great deal of confidence in the club's young players. Beckham was part of a group of young talents Ferguson brought into United in the 1990s (known as "Fergie's Fledglings"), which included Nicky Butt and Gary and Phil Neville. When experienced players Paul Ince, Mark Hughes, and Andrei Kanchelskis left the club after the end of the 1994–95 season, his decision to let youth team players replace them instead of buying star players from other clubs (United had been linked with moves for players including Darren Anderton, Marc Overmars and Roberto Baggio, but no major signings were made that summer), drew a great deal of criticism. The criticism increased when United started the season with a 3–1 defeat at Aston Villa,[40] with Beckham scoring United's only goal of the game. However, United recovered from this early season defeat and the young players performed well.[41]

Beckham swiftly established himself as United's right-sided midfielder (rather than a right-winger in the style of his predecessor Andrei Kanchelskis) and helped them to win the Premier League title and FA Cup double that season, scoring the winner in the semi-final against Chelsea and also providing the corner from which Eric Cantona scored in the FA Cup Final. Beckham's first title medal had, for a while, looked like it would not be coming that season, as United were still 10 points adrift of leaders Newcastle United at the turn of the new year, but Beckham and his teammates had overhauled the Tynesiders at the top of the league by mid March and they remained top until the end of the season. Despite playing regularly and to a consistently high standard for Manchester United, Beckham did not break into the England squad before Euro 1996.[42]

1996–1998: First-choice and inheriting No. 7 shirt

At the beginning of the 1996–97 season, Beckham was given the number 10 shirt that had most recently been worn by Mark Hughes. On 17 August 1996 (the first day of the Premier League season), Beckham became something of a household name when he scored a spectacular goal in a match against Wimbledon. With United leading 2–0, Beckham noticed that Wimbledon's goalkeeper Neil Sullivan was standing a long way out of his goal, and hit a shot from the halfway line – 60 yards out – that floated over the goalkeeper and into the net.[45]

His goal celebration for the 60-yard strike saw him raise his arms and walk away smiling rather than run as he often would.[46] In a UK poll conducted by Channel 4 in 2002, the British public voted the goal No.18 in the list of the 100 Greatest Sporting Moments.[44] In a 2016 Sky Sports poll it was ranked the best opening day goal in Premier League history.[46] During the 1996–97 season, Beckham became an automatic first-choice player at Manchester United, helping them to retain the Premier League title, and was voted PFA Young Player of the Year by his peers.[47] Prior to the 1997–98 season, Beckham inherited the number 7 shirt, a number previously worn by such United legends as George Best and Eric Cantona.[48] Manchester United started the season well but erratic performances in the second half of the season saw United finish second behind Arsenal.[49]

1998–1999: Treble

To ensure they would win the Premier League title, United needed to win their final league match of the season, at home to Tottenham. There were reports suggesting that the opposition would allow themselves to be beaten to prevent their local rivals Arsenal from retaining the title, but Tottenham took an early lead in the match.[50] Beckham scored the equaliser with a curling strike from 12 yards out, after receiving the ball on the right side of the penalty area, placing the ball into the top left corner of the goal; United went on to win the match 2–1 and the league.[50][52]

Beckham played in central midfield in United's win over Bayern Munich in the 1999 UEFA Champions League Final, as United's first string centre-midfielders Paul Scholes and Roy Keane were suspended for the match.[50] United were losing the match 1–0 at the end of normal time, but won the trophy by scoring two goals in injury time. Both of the goals came from corners taken by Beckham.[50] Those crucial assists, coupled with great performances over the rest of the season, led to him finishing runner up to Rivaldo for 1999's European Footballer of the Year and FIFA World Player of the Year awards.[53]

1999–2000: Another Championship

Despite Beckham's achievements in the 1998–99 season, he was still unpopular among some opposition fans and journalists, and he was criticised after being sent off for a deliberate foul in Manchester United's World Club Championship match against Necaxa. It was suggested in the press that his wife was a bad influence on him, and that it might be in United's interests to sell him,[54] but his manager publicly backed him and he stayed at the club. During the 1999–2000 season, there was a talk of a transfer to Juventus in Italy, but this never happened. Beckham helped United retain the Premier League title in 1999–2000 by an 18-point margin, after being pushed by Arsenal and Leeds United for much of the season. United won their final 11 league games of the season, with Beckham scoring five goals during this run, with his last goal coming from a swerving shot from the edge of the penalty area in their final home game against Tottenham Hotspur.[55]

2000–2001: Troubled relationship with Ferguson

By the early 2000s, the relationship between Ferguson and Beckham had begun to deteriorate, possibly as a result of Beckham's fame and commitments away from football. In 2000, Beckham was given permission to miss training to look after his son Brooklyn, who had gastroenteritis, but Ferguson was furious when Victoria Beckham was photographed at a London Fashion Week event on the same night, claiming that Beckham would have been able to train if Victoria had looked after Brooklyn that day. He responded by fining Beckham the maximum amount that was permitted (two weeks' wages – then £50,000) and dropping him for a crucial match against United's rivals Leeds United. He later criticised Beckham for this in his autobiography, claiming he had not been "fair to his teammates"[56] Beckham had a good season for his club, though, and helped United to win the Premier League by a record margin.

"He was never a problem until he got married. He used to go into work with the academy coaches at night time, he was a fantastic young lad. Getting married into that entertainment scene was a difficult thing – from that moment, his life was never going to be the same. He is such a big celebrity, football is only a small part."' – Alex Ferguson speaking about Beckham's marriage in 2007.[57]

He was a key player in United's third successive league title in 2000–01, only the fourth time that any club had achieved three league titles in a row. He scored nine goals that season, all in the Premier League.

2001–2002: Contract extension

On 10 April 2002, Beckham was injured during a Champions League match against Deportivo de La Coruña, breaking the second metatarsal bone in his left foot. There was speculation in the British media that the injury might have been caused deliberately, as the player who had injured Beckham was Argentine Aldo Duscher, and England and Argentina were due to meet in that year's World Cup.[58] The injury prevented Beckham from playing for United for the rest of the season and they missed out on the Premier League title to Arsenal (also being knocked out of the Champions League by Bayer Leverkusen on away goals in the semi-finals), but he signed a three-year contract in May, following months of negotiations with the club, mostly concerning extra payments for his image rights. The income from his new contract, and his many endorsement deals, made him the highest-paid player in the world at the time.[59] Despite the injury, 2001–02 was arguably Beckham's best season as a United player; he scored 11 goals in 28 league games, and a total of 16 goals in 42 games in all competitions, the best of his career.

2002–2003: Boot incident and United exit

Following an injury early in the 2002–03 season, Beckham was unable to regain his place on the Manchester United team, with Ole Gunnar Solskjær having replaced him on the right side of midfield. His relationship with his manager deteriorated further on 15 February 2003 when, in the changing room following an FA Cup defeat to Arsenal, a furious Alex Ferguson threw[60][61][62][63][64][65] or kicked a boot that struck Beckham over the eye, causing a cut that required stitches. The incident led to a great deal of transfer speculation involving Beckham, with bookmakers offering odds on whether he or Ferguson would be first to leave the club.[66] Although the team had started the season badly, their results improved greatly from December onwards and they won the league, with Beckham managing a total of 11 goals in 52 games in all competitions. He was still a first-choice player for England, however, and was appointed an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to football on 13 June 2003.[67]

Beckham had made 265 Premier league appearances for United and scored 61 goals. He also made 81 Champions league appearances, scoring 15 goals. Beckham won six Premier League titles, two FA Cups, one European Cup, one Intercontinental Cup and one FA Youth Cup in the space of 12 years. By this stage, he was their joint second longest serving player behind Ryan Giggs (having joined them at the same time as Nicky Butt, Gary Neville and Paul Scholes).

Real Madrid

2003–2004: Becoming a Galáctico

As the summer 2003 transfer window approached, Manchester United appeared keen to sell Beckham to Barcelona[69] and the two clubs even announced that they reached a deal for Beckham's transfer,[70] but instead he joined reigning Spanish champions Real Madrid for €37 million on a four-year contract.[71] Beckham was the latest signing in the Galácticos era of global stars signed by club president Florentino Pérez every summer.[72] The news came as a bitter blow to the newly elected Barcelona president Joan Laporta, who based much of his presidential campaign on signing Beckham.[73] Though announced in mid-June, the transfer was completed on 1 July 2003, making him the third Englishman to play for the club, after Laurie Cunningham and Steve McManaman. Following a successful medical on 2 July, Beckham was unveiled in front of 500 accredited journalists from 25 countries at Real's basketball facility, where he was handed the famous white shirt by club legend Alfredo Di Stéfano.[74] Although Beckham had worn the number seven shirt for Manchester United and England, he was unable to wear it at Madrid as it was assigned to club captain Raúl. He decided to wear number 23 instead, citing his admiration of basketball player Michael Jordan, who also wore the number 23 shirt, as the reason behind his decision

In the week before Beckham's presentation, Real named Carlos Queiroz as their new head coach, meaning that Beckham was reunited with a familiar face upon arriving to Madrid, since Queiroz had spent the previous season as Alex Ferguson's assistant at Manchester United. In late July 2003, the club went on a tour of the Far East as part of pre-season training, but also to cash in on Beckham's huge marketing appeal in Asia, where he enjoyed tremendous following. Real's brand recognition in that part of the globe was already well established as the club made financially successful trips to Asia during previous off-seasons. The presence of a global marketing icon such as Beckham, however, made this particular tour a financial smash for los Merengues.[76]

Shortly after his transfer to Real, Beckham also ended his relationship with agent Tony Stephens of SFX Europe, who had guided him through his career until that point, including helping to engineer Beckham's move from Manchester to Madrid. Beckham signed on with Simon Fuller and his company 19 Entertainment, which already managed the career of Victoria.[77] Beckham also appointed close friend Terry Byrne to be his personal manager

In late August 2003, Real Madrid won the Spanish Super Cup over two legs versus RCD Mallorca, with Beckham scoring the final goal in a 3–0 return leg win at home, thus setting the stage for the start of the league season. Playing in a star-laden team which included three former FIFA World Player of the Year recipients, Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo and Luís Figo, in addition to Roberto Carlos, Raúl and Iker Casillas, Beckham did not require much time to settle in, scoring five times in his first 16 matches (including a goal less than three minutes into his La Liga debut). Queiroz mostly favoured the adaptable 5–3–2 formation, with two fullbacks Míchel Salgado and Roberto Carlos, often joining the attack down the wings, while Beckham played on the right of the three-man midfield, alongside Zidane and Figo.[81]

Real Madrid were runners-up in the Copa del Rey, were knocked out of the UEFA Champions League at the quarter-final stage and finished the league season in fourth place, meaning the team, whose president Pérez expected them to win either the Spanish league or the Champions League each season, did not match expectations. In July 2004, while Beckham was in pre-season training in Spain, an intruder scaled a wall at the Beckham home while carrying a can of petrol. Victoria and their children were in the house at the time, but security guards apprehended the man before he reached the house.[82]

2004–2005: Managerial changes

The league season began with new head coach José Antonio Camacho at the helm, but he ended up lasting only three matches, handing in his resignation as Real dropped to eighth spot in the La Liga standings. Camacho's assistant Mariano García Remón took over on temporary basis as Real's leadership scrambled to find a permanent replacement. Beckham made more headlines on 9 October 2004 when he admitted intentionally fouling Ben Thatcher in an England match against Wales to get himself booked. Beckham was due to receive a one-match suspension for his next caution, and had picked up an injury which he knew would keep him out of England's next match, so he deliberately fouled Thatcher to serve his suspension in a match that he would have had to miss anyway. The Football Association asked Beckham for an explanation of his actions and he admitted that he had "made a mistake" and apologised.[83] He was sent off shortly afterwards, this time in a league match for Real Madrid against Valencia. Having received a yellow card, he was judged to have sarcastically applauded the referee and was given a second yellow card, causing an automatic dismissal, although the suspension was cancelled on appeal.

By Christmas 2004, with the team sitting in second position in the league, García Remón was dismissed, and Vanderlei Luxemburgo became the new head coach. However, the well-travelled Brazilian failed to inspire the team to the title as Real again finished the season in second position. On 3 December 2005, Beckham was sent off for the third time that season in a league match against Getafe CF. A day later Luxemburgo was sacked and was replaced by Juan Ramón López Caro. By the end of that season, Beckham led La Liga in number of assists.

2005–2006: Another unsuccessful season

During the season, Beckham established football academies in Los Angeles and east London and was named a judge for the 2006 British Book Awards.[84] Real Madrid finished second to Barcelona in the 2005–06 La Liga, albeit with a large 12-point gap, and only reached the last 16 in the Champions League after losing to Arsenal. The season also marked the end of an era for the club as Pérez resigned his post as president in January 2006, with Vicente Boluda named as replacement on an interim basis until the end of the season.

2006–2007: Real Madrid exit

The summer 2006 off-season marked a turbulent time as the club's presidential elections were held. Ramón Calderón became the new Real president. As expected, none of the club officials who served under the previous president was kept, including head coach López Caro. Initially out of favour with newly arrived head coach Fabio Capello, Beckham started only a few games at the beginning of the season, as the speedier José Antonio Reyes was normally preferred on the right wing. Of the first nine matches Beckham started, Real lost seven. On 10 January 2007, after prolonged contractual negotiations, Real Madrid's sporting director Predrag Mijatović announced that Beckham would not remain at Real Madrid after the end of the season. However, he later claimed that he was mistranslated and that he actually said that Beckham's contract had not yet been renewed.[85]

On 11 January 2007, Beckham announced that he had signed a five-year deal to play for the LA Galaxy beginning 1 July 2007. On 13 January 2007, Fabio Capello said that Beckham had played his last game for Real Madrid, although he continued to train with the team.[86] A few days later, while speaking to the students at Villanueva University Center in Madrid, Calderón said that Beckham is "going to Hollywood to be half a film star", adding "our technical staff were right not to extend his contract, which has been proved by the fact that no other technical staff in the world wanted him except Los Angeles".[87]

About a month later, however, Capello backtracked on his earlier statement, allowing Beckham to rejoin the team for the match against Real Sociedad on 10 February 2007. The player immediately repaid his head coach's trust by scoring the equalising goal from a 27-yard free kick, as Real Madrid eventually recorded a 2–1 victory.[88] In his final UEFA Champions League appearance for the club, Real Madrid were knocked out of the competition by Bayern Munich at the round-of-16 stage (on the away goals rule) on 7 March 2007. Beckham played a pivotal role in all three Madrid goals in the home game, with Bayern goalkeeper Oliver Kahn describing his performance as "world class"

On 17 June 2007, the last day of the La Liga season, Beckham started in his final match for the club, a 3–1 win over Mallorca which saw them clinch the title from Barcelona. With Real down 0–1, Beckham limped off the field and was replaced by José Antonio Reyes, who scored two goals, leading the team to that season's La Liga title, their first since Beckham had signed with them and 30th overall in the club's history. Although Real and Barçelona both finished level on points, Madrid took the title because of their superior head-to-head record, capping a remarkable six-month turnaround for Beckham.[90] With his wife and children, along with celebrity friends Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, watching from a luxury box at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, it was only Beckham's second piece of silverware since he joined the famous club.[90]

Towards the end of the season, as Beckham was getting back into Capello's good books after successfully fighting his way back into the first team, Real Madrid announced they would try to untie his transfer to LA Galaxy, but were ultimately unsuccessful.[91] Several weeks before Beckham's scheduled arrival in the United States, Real's management contacted LA Galaxy's ownership group about reacquiring the player, but were quickly turned down.[92]

A month after the conclusion of Beckham's Real career, Forbes magazine reported that he had been the party primarily responsible for the team's huge increase in merchandise sales, a total reported to top US$600 million during Beckham's four years at the club.[93]

LA Galaxy

2007: The American Dream

Beckham's involvement with Major League Soccer (MLS) began while he was still a Real Madrid player when it was confirmed on 11 January 2007 that he would be leaving Madrid in six months to join MLS side LA Galaxy. The speculation about his new contract in Madrid was thus put to an end and the following day Beckham's official press conference was held in conjunction with the 2007 MLS SuperDraft

The announcement made global headlines and elevated the league's profile. Though many worldwide media outlets reported the deal to be worth US$250 million,[96] the astronomical figure was soon revealed to be something of a PR stunt engineered by Beckham's media handlers (British representative agency 19 Entertainment).[97] To maximise the media effect, in the press release they decided to list the potential sum that Beckham could make over the five-year period from all his revenue sources, which in addition to his Galaxy pay also include his personal endorsements. Beckham's actual deal with the Galaxy was a five-year contract worth US$32.5 million in total or $6.5 million per year.[78][98]

The high-profile acquisition paid immediate financial dividends for Galaxy long before Beckham joined the team. On the strength of the signing and the media frenzy it created, the club was able to pull off a new five-year shirt sponsorship deal with Herbalife nutrition company worth US$20 million. The gate revenue peaked as well with 11,000 new season tickets holders and sold-out luxury suites (each one of the 42 inside the team's home stadium, the Home Depot Center).[99] LA Galaxy owners Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) also reported an immediate spike in business. Involved on many business fronts worldwide, AEG was already leveraging its Beckham association in places such as Shanghai and Beijing, where the company had been working aggressively for years to receive clearance to build arenas and stadiums. The company's CEO Tim Leiweke put it as follows: "Suddenly, we're known as the company that owns the team that David Beckham is going to play for, so our world changed".[100]

In the months following the announcement, the additional terms of Beckham's contract became public knowledge. One unique contract provision was giving him the option of buying an MLS expansion franchise in any market except New York City at the fixed price of $25 million whenever he stopped playing in the league[101] – an allowance that the league's owners had never given to a player before. Another provision was the opt-out clause after the 2009 season, meaning that should he decide so, Beckham was free to leave the club after completing year three of his five-year contract.[99] The league had a salary cap in place, requiring the creation of the Designated Player Rule for Beckham to bypass the cap; the rule was later nicknamed in his honor. In April 2007, he and wife Victoria bought an $18.2 million home on San Ysidro Drive in Beverly Hills.

Beckham's contract with LA Galaxy took effect on 11 July, and on 13 July, the Englishman was officially unveiled as a Galaxy player at the Home Depot Center to much fanfare and world media interest in front of more than 5,000 gathered fans and some 700 accredited media members.[103] Beckham chose to wear number 23. It was announced that Galaxy jersey sales had already reached a record figure of over 250,000 prior to this formal introduction.[104]

In parallel, Beckham's handlers at 19 Entertainment succeeded in putting together an unprecedented US media rollout designed to expand his carefully crafted personal brand in America. He made the cover of Sports Illustrated, a few weeks earlier Adidas launched the extensive 13-part ad campaign "Fútbol meets Football" starring Beckham and NFL running back Reggie Bush, and W magazine published a racy photo spread featuring David and wife Victoria photographed by Steven Klein. Meanwhile, ESPN sports network was running a promotional campaign and it also agreed to air David Beckham: New Beginnings documentary produced by 19 Entertainment before the friendly match versus Chelsea, which was expected to be Beckham's American debut. In addition to popularising soccer, Beckham's arrival was used as platform for entertainment industry endeavours. Since both Beckham's and his wife's often overlapping careers were handled by 19 Entertainment, which is owned by Simon Fuller, who in turn has a business relationship with the Creative Artists Agency (CAA), one of Hollywood's most powerful talent agencies, it was important also for CAA that the Beckhams made as big an impact as possible upon their arrival in the United States. On 16 July, CAA had hosted a welcoming bash for David at its new eight-storey, $400 million headquarters in Century City with CAA employees reportedly instructed beforehand to line the staircase and clap for Beckham upon his arrival.[105] That night Victoria's reality show prime-time special Victoria Beckham: Coming to America aired on NBC, drawing negative reviews in the press and poor viewership ratings.

On Saturday afternoon, 21 July, despite still nursing the injured left ankle that he picked up a month earlier during the final match of La Liga's season, Beckham made his Galaxy debut, coming on for Alan Gordon in the 78th minute of a 0–1 friendly loss to Chelsea as part of the World Series of Soccer.[107] With a capacity crowd, along with a long Hollywood celebrity list featuring Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes, Eva Longoria, Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Drew Carey among others, present at the Home Depot Center, the match was broadcast live on ESPN's main network. However, the proceedings on the field of play took a back seat to the Beckham spectacle, and despite the presence of worldwide football stars such as Andriy Shevchenko, Didier Drogba, Michael Ballack, and Frank Lampard, the US television cameras were firmly focused on Beckham who spent most of the match on the bench. The match's added time featured a scare for already injured Beckham when he got tackled by Steve Sidwell whose cleats struck Beckham's right foot, sending him airborne before he crumpled hard to the ground. Though the existing injury was not aggravated too much, Beckham's recovery process was set back by about a week. ESPN's presentation of Beckham's debut earned a 1.0 TV rating, meaning it was seen in an average of 947,000 television homes in the US – a disappointing figure given the national media buzz and two weeks of constant promotion by ESPN.[102] As far as sporting events that were televised that weekend in the United States, Beckham's much publicised debut drew fewer TV viewers than British Open golf tournament, a regular-season national baseball game, and even the Indy Racing League's Honda 200 motor race.[102]

The day after the made-for-TV debut was reserved for the welcoming party for the Beckhams at LA's Museum of Contemporary Art, formally billed as being hosted by Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes, Will Smith, and Jada Pinkett Smith though in actuality a CAA-organized event. Attended by many Hollywood A-listers, the lavish bash was big news in the US celebrity tabloid media, including daily entertainment TV magazines such as Entertainment Tonight and Access Hollywood.[108]

Beckham missed the next four LA Galaxy matches – three in the North American SuperLiga and an MLS game away at Toronto FC though he still made the trip with his teammates, sitting on the bench in street clothes. It was in Toronto on 5 August that the team got its first taste of what life would be like on the road with Beckham on the roster. Due to security concerns, it was the first time the team flew on a charter for a road match, rather than flying commercial (MLS normally forbids charter flights for away matches, claiming they provide competitive advantage, but in this case they made an exception due to the frenzy created around Beckham and resulting security issues). Also, instead of the usual MLS-mandated modest hotels, LA Galaxy stayed at the five-star Le Méridien King Edward in downtown Toronto (an expense paid for by the local Toronto promoter), while the glitz and glamour continued with the velvet rope, red carpet party at the Ultra Supper Club with Beckham as the centerpiece guest.

Two weeks after his 12-minute appearance against Chelsea, Beckham made his league debut as a substitute on 9 August away versus D.C. United in front of the sellout crowd of 46,686 (nearly three times the average D.C. United home crowd) at the RFK Stadium, coming on for Quavas Kirk in the 71st minute.[110] Coming into the nationally televised match on ESPN, played under a heavy downpour with his team down a man and down a goal, Beckham left a mark during the remaining 20-plus minutes. He hit a long free kick that Carlos Pavón failed to finish on for the equaliser, and then in the final minutes Beckham served a weighted through ball into Landon Donovan's path that United's keeper Troy Perkins managed to break up in the last moment – the Galaxy lost 1–0. The next match on the road trip was at New England Revolution and Beckham decided to sit it out, fearing further aggravating his ankle injury on the Gillette Stadium's artificial surface.

Beckham returned to the pitch the following week, again facing D.C. United, in the SuperLiga semi-final on 15 August. During this game he had many firsts with the Galaxy; his first start, first yellow card and first game as team captain.[111] He also scored his first goal for the team, from a free kick, and also made his first assist, for Landon Donovan in the second half. These goals gave the team a 2–0 victory, and a place in the North American SuperLiga final versus Pachuca on 29 August.

During the SuperLiga final against Pachuca, Beckham injured his right knee, with an MRI scan revealing that he had sprained his medial collateral ligament and would be out for six weeks. He returned to play in the final home match of the season. The Galaxy were eliminated from playoff contention on 21 October, in the final MLS match of the season, a 1–0 loss to the Chicago Fire. Beckham played as a substitute in the match, bringing his season totals to eight matches played (5 league); one goal scored (0 league); and three assists (2 league).

2008

Beckham trained with Arsenal from 4 January 2008 for three weeks until he returned to the Galaxy for pre-season training.[112] Beckham scored his first league goal with the Galaxy on 3 April against the San Jose Earthquakes in the ninth minute.[113] On 24 May 2008, the Galaxy defeated the Kansas City Wizards 3–1, giving the Galaxy their first winning record in two years and moving the club into first place in the Western Conference. In the match, Beckham scored an empty-net goal from 70 yards out. The goal marked the second time in Beckham's career that he had scored from his own half, the other being a 1996-goal from the half-way line against Wimbledon at Selhurst Park.[114] Overall, however, the Galaxy had a disappointing year, failing to qualify for the end-of-season play-offs.