It is 10 a.m. in Chiswick, a pleasant west London suburb, in late April, and Sir David Beckham has already been on set for two hours. This should have been expected: The 51-year-old retired soccer superstar is notorious for being early.

Cranes, tents and trailers clutter the driveway of a two-story brick home, giving it the outside appearance of a film studio. Inside, a few dozen crew members move through the rooms with practiced efficiency, managing cameras and lighting rigs. Beckham’s production firm, Studio 99, has set up today’s shoot for British speaker company Bowers & Wilkins. Yesterday’s shoot was for appliance maker SharkNinja. There are several more scheduled in the coming days, all in service of the machine that is David Beckham, Inc.

As cameras roll, Beckham sits on an oversize sofa in a white Hugo Boss sweater, distressed jeans, a gold Rolex and white sneakers. A cocker spaniel, rented for the day, is curled beside him. The dog lunges mid-shot. From the next room, Beckham’s longtime creative director watches the playback on her monitor and snaps into action. “Jumper! Jumper!” She isn’t worried about the leaping dog—it’s Beckham’s sweater (or jumper, as Brits call it) that’s bugging her. A team descends to straighten it.

“I understood early that being with the right brands and having the same values as these brands, that’s when you get to work for them for ten, 15, 20 years,” Beckham explains. “I work hard at these relationships because it’s important. . . . We always over-deliver.”

Beckham retired from professional soccer in 2013 at age 38, after earning more than a half-billion dollars on and off the field. He was a global celebrity during his playing days, arguably the first soccer player since Pelé whom the average Ameri­can would recognize. Unbelievably, he has become more famous after retirement—and much richer.

Last year, Beckham raked in $100 million lending his meticulously manicured aura to products ranging from Adidas cleats to Nespresso coffee machines. It’s no longer just endorsements. There are Netflix documentaries, Florida real estate deals and investments in a slew of startups. In 2024 he launched IM8, an anti-aging and holistic health supplement brand. There’s Beeup, his line of children’s fruit snacks made from honey. And then, of course, there’s his 26% stake in Inter Miami, one of Major League Soccer’s most popular clubs. Add it all up and Beckham is a billionaire, worth $1 billion by our count—one of just seven living pro athletes (Jordan, Magic, Tiger, Le­Bron, Federer and retired Romanian tennis ace Ion Tiriac) to manage the feat.

The biggest chunk of his fortune is his stake in Inter Miami. Beckham stunned the soccer world in 2007 when he announced he was leaving Spain’s top-tier club Real Madrid for America’s Major League Soccer, then a floundering, second-tier league. “My gut was saying ‘this is the right thing,’ ” he says, “and I always go on my gut.” He negotiated a five-year contract to play for the Los Angeles Galaxy for $6.5 million per year—more than three times the salary cap (the league wisely granted an exception), plus an unprecedented cut of the team’s sponsorship and merchandise revenue. Most crucially, he insis­ted on an option to purchase an expansion team for $25 million when he retired.

He picked Miami from a short list of MLS- approved expansion markets, drawn to its population of soccer-loving Latin Americans and its appeal for players. “I always believed Miami could entice great players with its diversity and vibrance,” he says. Now Inter Miami is MLS’ hottest team, both on the field—winning the 2025 MLS Cup on the back of superstar Lionel Messi—and off. Forbes estimates the team is worth a league-record $1.35 billion before debt, placing Beckham’s 26% north of $300 million, a more than 12x return on his initial investment in just over a decade. In April, the team moved into the new 27,000-seat Nu Stadium near Miami International Airport. The structure was privately fun­ded by Beckham and his co-owners, construction billionaire Jorge Mas and his brother Jose, at an estimated cost of $350 million. Next door, construction crews are adding 1 million square feet of office and retail space, 750 hotel rooms and a 58-acre park for $1 billion, funded with debt and equity from the partners.

“There’s this rising narrative of athletes getting........

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