It was perhaps the biggest moment of David Beckham’s decorated soccer career. England needed to score against Greece in 2001 to qualify for the World Cup, and he stood over a free kick with little time left.
He duly bent the ball into the net, setting off paroxysms of joy throughout England. The announcer Gary Bloom spoke for the nation when he shouted, “Give that man a knighthood!”
It took 24 years, but now he’s getting one.
How do you get a knighthood?
In the modern age, knighthoods are conferred by the British royal family upon citizens who have achieved great success in their fields and served their country in one way or another.
“Recipients range from actors to scientists, and from school head teachers to industrialists,” the royal family’s website says. It might now add “impossibly handsome and famous ex-football stars.” Those conferred with a knighthood get the title “sir.”
Let’s hear the credentials of Beckham, er, Sir David.
Mr. Beckham, 50, was a brilliant soccer player, most memorably for Manchester United and England’s national team. His famous right foot had the uncanny ability to curl balls through the air and into the net, inspiring the title of the 2002 film “Bend it Like Beckham.”
His post-football career has included co-ownership of Inter Miami, the Major League Soccer team. He has been a UNICEF ambassador, and his charisma helped London secure hosting duties for the 2012 Summer Olympics.
In 2003, he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire, or O.B.E., a common starter title on the path to knighthood.
Who else bears the exalted title of knight?
A few thousand folks, some of who you have probably heard of.
A sampling: the Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton, the tennis player Andy Murray, the actors Michael Caine and Anthony Hopkins, the singers Elton John and Mick Jagger, and former prime ministers Tony Blair and John Major.
The New York Times, unrepentant ex-colonials that we are, tends to use standard courtesy titles in writing about people who have been knighted. Take that, Mr. McCartney (not Sir Paul).
That doesn’t seem fair to the women.
The female equivalent is dame, and its bearers include the media mogul Anna Wintour and the actresses Emma Thompson, Judi Dench, and Julie Andrews.
What happens at the knighthood ceremony?
Mr. Beckham will kneel on his right knee on a knighting-stool before King Charles III, who will lay the blade of a sword on Mr. Beckham’s right shoulder, followed by his left. You would hope that the king would then say, “Arise, Sir Beckham.” But disappointingly, the royal family says on its website that those words “are not used” in the ceremony.
While Mr. Beckham’s honor has been widely reported in the British news media, it is not expected to be formally announced until next week. The ceremony is expected in the following weeks or months.
Isn’t Beckham chummy with the royals?
Yes. Princes William and Harry, the sons of the king and both big sports fans, have hung out with Mr. Beckham, who attended their weddings. He has done charity work with Charles as well.
Mr. Beckham waited in line with the general public for 12 hours to pay his respects when Queen Elizabeth’s coffin lay in state at Westminster Hall in 2022.
Still, emails from 2013 leaked to the British news media showed that Mr. Beckham had grown frustrated with his wait for a knighthood.
So I guess he’s going to sit at the round table with Lancelot now.
Knighthoods, which date to the Roman era in Britain, are most closely associated with the Middle Ages, when knights were trained in battle and protected the sovereign. (The royal family notes that a knighthood currently “carries no military obligations to the sovereign.”)
The quasi-mythical King Arthur had his famous crew of Bedivere, Galahad and Gawain. But in modern times, knights participate in significantly less questing.
More important: What does this mean for Posh?
Victoria Beckham, the pop singer and fashion designer perhaps best known as Posh Spice from the Spice Girls, will also get a title and henceforth be known as Lady Beckham. She, too, has an O.B.E., for “services to the fashion industry.” No word on future titles for Scary, Ginger, Sporty or Baby Spice.
Victor Mather, who has been a reporter and editor at The Times for 25 years, covers sports and breaking news.
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