David Beckham was born in Leytonstone, East London in May 1975. At the age of 11 he came first in the Bobby Charlton Soccer Schools competition ahead of 5,000 other boys. He signed for Manchester United in 1989 and made his debut three years later, aged 17. He has since gone on to play almost a hundred times for England, including captaining his country for both the 2002 and 2006 World Cup Finals. He was transfered to Real Madrid for GBP25 million in the summer of 2003.
Leo Moynihan is a football journalist for publications such as FourFourTwo, Observer Sports Monthly and Sunday Telegraph. He was nominated for Best New Writer in the 2005 British Sports Book of the Year awards for his biography of Gordon Strachan.