David Beckham has – once again – been snubbed for a knighthood despite his royal family friendships, while his former Three Lions teammate Gareth Southgate has been given that top gong in the New Year’s Honours list.
Just at the start of this month, ex-England captain Beckham was spotted rubbing shoulders with King Charles and Queen Camilla for a banquet to mark the state visit of the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.
He was said to be ‘humbled’ by his invitation and, along with his wife Victoria, ‘very happy’ to be there.
Beckham, an avid royalist since he was a schoolboy in Chingford, received his OBE from the late Queen in 2003, and for a time it seemed as though a knighthood might be within his grasp.
While his appointment as an ambassador to HM’s charity the King’s Foundation was deemed an encouraging sign earlier this year, Beckham’s complicated tax affairs have been viewed as a possible barrier.
And in February 2017, there was a slew of leaked emails showing the former footballer had appeared to unleash a barrage of expletives criticising the honours committee that had once again left him off the list for a coveted gong.
There was also an alleged 2013 leaked email, when, bitter not to be knighted, he complained about Katherine Jenkins, fuming ‘Katherine Jenkins OBE for what? Singing at the rugby and going to see the troops. Plus taking coke. F****** joke.’
He has been left off the list once again, with former England manager Southgate instead being bestowed with the honour following the Three Lions’ progress to the Euros final in Germany this summer – after also finishing runners-up at Euro 2020.
A source told : ‘It’s Gareth’s big hurrah and David is thrilled for him. David knew it wouldn’t be his time and he is fine with that but you never know what is down the line.’
This summer, Sir Rod Stewart shared a joke that Beckham’s knighthood is ‘coming soon’.
The rock star, 79, received his own knighthood in 2016 appeared at the inaugural King’s Foundation awards ceremony in London alongside his wife Penny Lancaster.
During his short speech, he proclaimed that footballing legend David, 49, will soon receive the same honour he did almost a decade ago.
Speaking in a video posted to X, he said: ‘Penny and I are so honoured to be ambassadors for the King’s trust.
‘I’m also wonderfully honoured to be a knight. David, yours is coming soon’.
The former England captain is yet still to join a finite list of his fellow sports stars to receive such an honour, including the likes of the late Sir Bobby Charlton and former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson.
If he was disappointed, Beckham masked it magnificently on Wednesday evening.
Championing British brands, he made a trip to Mayfair’s Savile Row for his suit and emerged with a bespoke three-piece ensemble from tailors Anderson & Sheppard, who, as it happens, have also dressed the King in the past. ‘It was important for David to be turned out impeccably,’ says a friend of the star.
Victoria, meanwhile, chose a chic, floor-length black gown from her own label on which a tremendous amount of time had been spent to get it just right.
Beckham was seated between his close friend, Qatari businessman Nasser Al-Khelaifi, and the new Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, while Victoria had Labour peer Lord Levy to her left and surgeon Lord Darzi – recognised for his services to medicine – on her right.
For years, through their joint love of football, Beckham has been close to princes William and Harry. He helped Prince William campaign for England’s World Cup bid in 2010 to host the 2018 or the 2022 tournament.
And he attended the weddings of both Princes. But it is first and foremost his unlikely, yet burgeoning, friendship with the King that led to the presence of the Beckhams at a state dinner.
For the past 18 months, the two men have become close.
When they met at the British Fashion Council awards in May 2023, David gave the monarch a pot of his homemade honey – D Bee’z Sticky Stuff – which he makes at the couple’s Grade II listed barn in Great Tew, Oxfordshire. It was then that they discovered common ground – their mutual love for bees.
The King was surprised by the ex-footballer’s hobby and later invited him to his Highgrove estate where he asked him to join The King’s Foundation, a charity which works globally to create sustainable communities.
‘The King and David have a very strong bond,’ says a source. ‘They both enjoy the outdoors and actually have far more in common than you would think.
‘They have this shared love for the countryside and nature.
‘They come from very different backgrounds but they have a close relationship, and have a few different points of connection from sport to countryside and charities.
‘The friendship has happened organically. You wouldn’t exactly put a footballer and a King together and expect them to get on so famously but it just works. It’s lovely.’
Family is also important to both men, and Beckham’s devotion to the late Queen, and the fact that he was brought up to respect the Royal Family cannot have gone unnoticed.
Along with revealing in interviews that he has always stood for the Queen’s Speech, Beckham’s decision to stand for 12 hours in the famous public ‘queue’ to see the late Queen lying in state in Westminster Hall, in September 2022, could be seen as another pivotal moment in his rehabilitation.
However Beckham’s bid for a knighthood may forever be marred by furious emails he allegedly sent and were exposed after a hack.
Beckham allegedly wrote an email to his PR manager, Simon Oliveira, indicating his fury that classical music singer Katherine Jenkins had been handed an OBE after he missed out on the knighthood.
When Jenkins was awarded an OBE in 2013 – the same honour Beckham holds – the decision was allegedly branded a ‘f****** joke.’
The ex-England captain, who himself received the honour a decade earlier, is reported to have sent a furious email to Oliveira, lambasting the decision by the honour’s committee.
Beckham’s representatives dismissed the claims, stating that the emails had been ‘hacked and doctored’ from a private account.
A spokesperson for David Beckham said: ‘This story is based on outdated material taken out of context from hacked and doctored private emails from a third party server and gives a deliberately inaccurate picture.’
Meanwhile, Sir Gareth’s path to the top gong on the New Year’s Honours was cleared after a probe into his tax affairs was dropped earlier this year.
He is joined by dozens of Team GB Olympic medallists from Paris 2024 including rower Helen Glover, runner Keely Hodkinson, and mountain biker Tom Pidcock.
Sir Gareth, 54, has finally netted the top honour for services to association football.
He led England to the finals of Euro 2020 and 2024 as well as the semi-final of the World Cup in 2018.
It is understood plans to knight him following the 2020 final defeat against Italy were shelved as he had been placed at ‘amber’ on a ‘tax risk list’.
But tax bosses ruled that he did not break rules by investing in a controversial film investment scheme following intensive talks between HMRC and Whitehall mandarins earlier this year.
Sir Gareth resigned after the heartbreaking 2-1 final defeat to Spain last July following an eight-year stint that restored hope to the nation.
Meanwhile Team GB’s incredible success in Paris where they won 65 medals has been recognised with a string of gongs for our heroes.
Keely Hodkinson, 22, gets an MBE after claiming gold in the 800 metres to cap off an incredible 12 months that also saw her crowned BBC Sports Personality of the Year.
Two-time Olympic champion Tom Pidcock, 25, is made an OBE, having won gold in mountain biking.
Rower Helen Glover, 38, receives an OBE after winning bronze in Paris in the Women’s Pair having picked up gold in 2012 and 2016.
Fellow rowers Lola Anderson, 25, Emily Craig, 32, Dr Imogen Grant, 28, picked up MBEs while rower Georgina Brayshaw, 26, who won gold in Paris, gets an MBE.
Swimmer Duncan Scott, 27, Team GB’s most recognised athlete at Tokyo 2020, gets an OBE, while gold medallist swimmer William Ellard, 18, receives an MBE.
Bronze medallist trampolinist Bryony Page, 34, and sailor Ellie Aldridge, 28, are made MBE.
Gold medallist sprinter Dina Asher-Smith, 29, gets an MBE, as do track cyclists Sophie Capewell, 26, Katy Marchant, 31, and Emma Finucane, 22, heptathlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson, 31.
The Paralympic team, which placed second at Paris after scooping an incredible 124 medals including 49 gold, was also recognised.
Hannah Cockroft, 32, becomes a CBE after coming first in the T34 100m and 800m in the French capital.
There are OBEs for para swimmer Tully Kearney, 27, para sprinter Samantha Kinghorn, 28, para rowers Erin Kennedy, 32, and Lauren Rowles, 26, as well as para swimmer Alice Tai, 25.
Former F1 driver and broadcaster Martin Brundle is made an OBE and former Scotland and Liverpool footballer Alan Hansen has been made an MBE.
Meanwhile England rugby star Immanuel Feyi-Waboso’s father Andrew, a consultant ophthalmologist, is given an overseas MBE for services to International Eyecare in Malawi and Nigeria.