David Beckham has once again been snubbed for a knighthood as the New Year’s honours list was unveiled, over seven years after he lambasted the honours committee in a leaked email for not including him.
Beckham is a household name in British sport, having led the England team and boasting an illustrious career with stints at Manchester United, Real Madrid, AC Milan, and PSG, where he clinched top titles such as the Premier League, La Liga, and the Champions League.
Now the founder and owner of MLS club Inter Miami, Beckham’s significant contributions to sport have led many supporters to view him as a “sir in waiting”. Yet, the 49-year-old remains without a knighthood, despite receiving an OBE in 2003.
This continued omission follows the bombshell leak of emails in 2017, which may have hindered his chances of being knighted in the foreseeable future, the Mirror reports.
In those emails, Beckham allegedly called the honours committee “unappreciative c***s” and remarked that he “didn’t care about being knighted”, although he has contended that some of the leaked emails were manipulated.
According to the leaked emails, Beckham commented: “I expected nothing less. It’s a disgrace to be honest and if I was American I would of got something like this 10 years ago.”
David Beckham has reportedly lashed out at opera star Katherine Jenkins for receiving an OBE, questioning the accolade with a blunt: “Katherine Jenkins OBE for what? Singing at the rugby and going to see the troops. F***ing joke.”
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Despite his extensive charity work with UNICEF, leaked emails appeared to show Beckham refusing to donate $1m to the organisation when he gave a frosty reply to a PR representative for the charity asking him to spend $1m (£800,000) on a prize-giving dinner in Shanghai.
He allegedly wrote: “I don’t want to put my personal money into this cause. To pour this million into the fund, is like putting my own money in. If there was no fund, the money would be for me. This f***ing money is mine.”
The debate over whether Beckham deserves a knighthood continues. A close friend of Beckham’s confided to The Mirror in 2017: “He is very calm at the moment because he knows the great work that he has done for UNICEF.
“But he is just saddened that people would question all of that work. Genuinely, he wasn’t as vitriolic as that, but you do say some things in private and in the heat of the moment.”
They also noted: “To be honest, he does feel that he has given so much to his country. And sometimes you say things in private that anyone would say and you don’t really mean it.
“While he was frustrated in those emails, he was over it the moment he sent them. Getting the knighthood is not what his work is about. He doesn’t care if he gets a knighthood or not.”
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