David Beckham, a former captain of England and co-owner of Inter Miami, stood in line with thousands of others to pay his last respects to the late Queen of England, Queen Elizabeth II for more than 13 hours on Friday, September 16, 2022.
As mourners waited in a long line to see the queen’s coffin one last time at Westminster Hall before her funeral on Monday, Beckham, 47, was spotted in the line.
When he was questioned by reporters while waiting for his turn to see the casket of the late queen on Friday afternoon, the former Manchester United and Real Madrid midfielder claimed he had been waiting since around 2.15 a.m. BST.
He mentioned sharing crisps, candy, and donuts with his colleagues and ‘line waiters’ to keep everyone’s energy levels up.
Beckham, who had multiple encounters with the queen over her 70-year reign, was captured on camera at Westminster Hall appearing emotional as he waited to pass by her casket.
Around 3.25 p.m. BST, Beckham stopped by the casket to pay his last respects to the late queen. Immediately he got close to the casket, he briefly closed his eyes.
In 2003, the queen awarded Beckham with an OBE (Order of the British Empire) for his contributions to football. Beckham expressed his joy in singing “God Save The Queen” before England matches.
“I grew up in a household of royalists and I was brought up that way so if my grandparents [had] been here today, I know that they would have wanted to be here so I am here on their behalf and on behalf of my family and obviously to celebrate with everybody else here,” Beckham told ITV News.
“The amount of times that I was able to meet her through my career and I was very lucky… to represent my country, to be captain of my country.
“Every time we stood there and we wore those Three Lions shirts and I had my armband and we sang ‘God Save Our Queen,’ that was something that meant so much to us and every time that we did it, it was something special.
“Probably the most special moment for me was when I received my OBE, and to receive my OBE… To step up, to get my honour, but then also her majesty to ask a question and to talk, I was so lucky that I was able to have a few moments like that in my life.”
Between 1996 and 2009, Beckham played 115 times for England and scored 17 goals while competing in three World Cups.
He played for United, Madrid, LA Galaxy, AC Milan, and Paris Saint-Germain throughout a remarkable career, winning six Premier League titles, the Champions League, and other accolades. He retired in 2013.
David Beckham
David Robert Joseph Beckham OBE (born 2 May 1975) is an English former professional footballer and the current president and co-owner of Inter Miami CF and Salford City.
Beckham has been praised as one of the greatest and most recognizable midfielders of his generation as well as one of the best set-piece specialists of all time. He is known for his variety of passing, crossing skills, and bending free-kicks as a right winger.
He is the first English player to have won league championships in four different nations: France, England, Spain, and the United States.
At the age of 17, Beckham made his first-team debut for Manchester United, the start of his professional club career.
He won the FA Cup twice with United, the Premier League six times, and the UEFA Champions League in 1999. After that, he spent four seasons with Real Madrid, where his last season saw him capture the La Liga title. Beckham agreed to a five-year deal with Major League Soccer team LA Galaxy in July 2007.
He played for AC Milan on loan twice while a member of the Galaxy in 2009 and 2010. He was the first football player from the United Kingdom to play 100 UEFA Champions League games.
He won 19 significant prizes throughout the course of his 20-year career, which ended in May 2013. On September 1, 1996, at the age of 21, Beckham made his international football debut for England.
During his six years as captain, he received 58 caps. He played in 115 matches throughout his career, including three FIFA World Cups (1998, 2002, and 2006) and two UEFA European Championships (2000, 2004). He retained the outfield player appearance record for England until 2016.
Beckham, a global football ambassador, is revered as a symbol of British culture. He finished second in the Ballon d’Or competition in 1999, finished second again in the FIFA World Player of the Year voting (1999 and 2001), and was chosen by Pelé to the FIFA 100 list of the finest active players in the world in 2004.
Both the Premier League Hall of Fame and the English Football Hall of Fame inducted him in 2008 and 2021, respectively. Beckham has routinely been one of football’s highest paid players, and in 2013 he was named the highest-paid athlete in the world after earning more than $50 million in the preceding 12 months.
David Beckham is married to Victoria. They have four children together and have been married since 1999. Since 2005, he has served as an ambassador for UNICEF in the UK. In 2015, he introduced: The David Beckham UNICEF Fund.
Beckham and a group of investors bought Inter Miami CF, which debuted in 2020, according to a 2014 MLS announcement.
