Becks Earns More Off The Pitch
Monday, March 1, 2004
David Beckham earned £6.75m away from the pitch last year and a mere £4m for playing football.
New figures published yesterday reveal a massive rise in the superstar England captain's off-pitch earnings.
And the boost took his total pay for his last year with Manchester United to almost £11million.
Beckham got a £4million salary from the Old Trafford club, and almost £7million from off-field sponsorships and endorsements.
At just 28, with the possibility of many more mega-deals in the future, he could be on his way to becoming the richest sportsman in world history.
The earnings are revealed in accounts for Beckham's firm Footwork Productions, where he channels all his non-football income.
He paid himself £5.5million in wages and another £1.25million in share dividends in the financial year ending last April.
The company made a total of £8.7million, compared with £3.5million the previous year.
Even after Beckham collected his share and paid his taxes, there was still another £1.2million in the kitty.
The money comes from advertising deals with mobile phone firm Vodafone (£1million) and previously with Brylcreem (£1million).
There are also £1million endorsements with Police sunglasses and Rage software, for lending his name to computer games.
Now even that level of wealth will be made to look small beer as the working-class boy from Chingford, East London, continues his transformation into a global brand.
Gas engineer's son Beckham is earning even more after his transfer last summer to Spanish giants Real Madrid.
His deal there nets him an extra £12,000 a week after tax from his football duties.
His value to sponsors has rocketed with his transfer to Spain.
An "ambassador" deal is being hammered out with sportswear firm Adidas which could net him £100million over his lifetime.
Pop svengali Simon Fuller, the brains behind the Spice Girls, is now masterminding the commercial activities of Beckham and his wife Victoria.
Business insiders say Fuller has the showbiz acumen to crack the huge US market - which could push the Beckhams into a world elite of the super-wealthy. American baseball legend Michael Jordan is currently the world's richest sports star with £250million.
But he retired at 28 - the age Becks is now, while Beckham could have another six years at the top.
A US deal is seen in showbiz circles as good news for ex Spice Girl Victoria, who once declared that she wanted to be "more famous than Daz Automatic".
Beckham's transfer to Fuller came after he parted company with sports agency SFX, run by pal Tony Stephens.
SFX guided Beckham to his current wealth and will continue to negotiate his playing contracts. The documents show that Beckham and his father, Ted, quit as directors of Footwork just before Christmas. Victoria and her father, Tony Adams, took over, joining lawyer Andrew Thomson in running his affairs.
The appointments underline the huge influence Victoria has in her husband's business dealings - and the extent to which the pair's fortunes are now inter-linked.
FINANCIAL GOALS
Some of his sponsorship deals
£1M: VODAFONE
Becks plugs state-of-the-art phones - but didn't know how to send texts at first
£2.5M: TBC
Posh and Becks star in ads for Tokyo Beauty Centre's Japanese cosmetics
£1.5M: RAGE GAMES
A virtual Becks stars in computer games like David Beckham Soccer
£1M: POLICE GLASSES
His megabucks sunglasses deal was extended for three years in December
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