Even when he loses, he wins: The $36 million reason why the World Cup is David Beckham’s oyster

If Brooklyn Peltz Beckham’s scathing assessment of his parents’ priorities is to be believed, public promotion and endorsement are valued above all else. “Brand Beckham”, the estranged eldest child of Sir David Beckham and Lady Victoria claimed in January, “comes first.”

Whether that feeling is fact is a question that might not truly be answered unless the 27-year-old self-styled entrepreneur and his wife, billionaire heiress Nicola Peltz Beckham, further make like Prince Harry and the Duchess of Sussex and accept a multimillion-dollar Netflix docuseries deal. Until that day comes, however, we can look to something else for “Brand Beckham” clues: the men’s FIFA World Cup 2026.

Unlike in 2022, when he signed a controversial “ambassadorial” deal with Qatar allegedly worth £150 million ($288 million), David Beckham is not the official face of this year’s tournament. But his beard has been beamed into millions of households worldwide every few minutes for five weeks and counting.

That’s thanks to a few reasons. Of course, there’s the fact that his 2007 signing to LA Galaxy helped to popularise the sport in the United States, one of the 2026 competition’s three host countries. “Golden Balls”, as his former Spice Girl wife calls him, can also claim credit for bringing one of the greatest footballers in the world over from the European leagues.

Beckham signed Lionel Messi to Inter Miami, the team Beckham co-owns with the billionaire Mas brothers, in 2023. (That Messi captains Argentina, which beat Beckham’s England at Atlanta Stadium on Thursday, made the ultimate grudge match all the more dramatic.)

Both feats are among many that earned Beckham a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in June and a spot on FIFA’s “VVIPs” (Very, Very Important People) list.

Per The Athletic, FIFA’s VVIP’s may include heads of state (or heirs apparent, in the case of Norway’s Crown Prince Haakon in the Miami quarter-final against England), football federation members (including FIFA president Gianni Infantino), celebrities or confederation officials. All feature in compulsory “dignitary shots” broadcast by global rights holders at least once in each half of each game, as dictated by an agreement between FIFA and production house Host Broadcast Service.

Beckham is not the only celebrity flying all over to attend these games in person, nor is the 51-year-old the only famous face whose reactions to the events on the field are being projected onto screens inside stadiums and homes across the globe – though his and Victoria’s elation at Anthony Gordon’s goal and his devastation at his country’s campaign coming to a crushing close, lingered on screens for longer than most.

How else would we have been given the now-viral photo of Beckham’s bored-looking wife at the England v Norway thriller, or Javier Bardem, Penélope Cruz, Brad Pitt and girlfriend Ines de Ramon’s visible anxiety at the Spain vs Belgium quarter-final? Or Channing Tatum’s joy at blending in with a sea of wig-wearing fans cosplaying as Norwegian hero Erling Haaland?

But, unlike the others, “dignitary shots” are not the only time Beckham is on-screen. And this is why, even though his team has spectacularly lost, Beckham still wins. Whether it’s sipping on a Stella Artois lager or from a limited-edition McDonald’s novelty cup in ads, before each game, during “hydration breaks”, half-time and after, it’s back-to-back Beckham.

The former midfielder has been retired from the sport for more than 13 years, but, thanks to the plethora of partnership deals the Daily Mail values at £19 million ($36 million), he’s set to earn more from the World Cup than any single player.

There is a reason Harvard Business School made a case study out of him in 2023: Beckham leveraged his sporting prowess into a legacy as an entrepreneur, capitalising on his star power to secure business deals, which only fed his fame.

“Maybe it is not fair to compare the two, but David Beckham is effectively Mickey Mouse,” Authentic Brands Group founder Jamie Salter told the institution, according to the New York Times, after entering into a strategic partnership with Beckham.

“Just as you go out and buy a Mickey Mouse T-shirt when you love Mickey, you’ll go out and buy a pair of David’s eyeglasses when you love him. You’ll say to yourself, ‘If those eyeglasses are good enough for David Beckham, they are good enough for me.’ I know one is a character and the other is a living person, but they are both a GOAT (greatest of all time).”

Perhaps that is why Brooklyn’s clumsy attempt to cash in on his surname by hinting at the family feud fell flat: you can’t beat the masters at their own game. Beckham the Younger’s “Long story” DoorDash spot, posted to Instagram on June 16, is sitting at 29,100 likes and 5.1 million views. A healthy engagement rate is usually one to three per cent of total follower count – for Brooklyn, that would be a minimum of 164,000 likes.

The most recent ad shared on David Beckham’s Instagram page (for video game Fortnite) reached more than 88,600 likes in 16 hours. A snap of Beckham with Victoria and their three youngest children, shared shortly after the semi-final, reached more than 1.9 million likes in three days.

Forget Haaland, England’s Jude Bellingham and Spain’s Lamine Yamal. Forget World Cup final half-time show performers Madonna, Justin Bieber, Shakira, BTS, Burna Boy and Coldplay. The World Cup is Brand Beckham’s oyster, and we’re just living in it.

Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter