Football and Fashion |

David Beckham’s stellar career is clearly not over yet, but he won’t be returning to his ‘roots’ in the east end of London, despite continuing efforts on the part of David Gold, co-owner of West Ham United.

Beckham, who is currently under contract with the Los Angeles Galaxy, has given no indication that he’s interested in Gold’s offer, and Gold told reporters on Sunday that he has given up on the idea of the big name signing.

Gold said he thought West Ham would have been an ideal place for the English star to end his career, but that Beckham is apparently planning to “move on” and the Hammers will have to do the same.

Earlier this summer, England manager Fabio Capello indicated that Beckham’s international career was over after his Achilles injury kept him out of the World Cup.

Recently, however, it seems that Capello has rethought his decision, and will be giving the English champion some more time for full recovery.

David and Victoria Beckham will reportedly not be buying a second house in Los Angeles. Many people had speculated that the couple had bought a large property in Santa Monica. However, as it turns out, the house belongs to friends of theirs. David and Victoria stayed this weekend with them at the beach house. They were also joined by Gordon Ramsay with wife Tana and family.

The property is worth over $5 million, but compared to the Beckham’s mansion in Beverly Hills, worth over $24 million, it is quite small. The Beckhams spent the weekend joined by their children and the Ramsay family.

Both families went on to visit another friend in Malibu. David Beckham got some sun as he went topless on the beach. Both Victoria and David were not afraid to show off their bodies throughout the weekend.

Victoria and David’s son Cruz wore a Real Madrid jersey. Older son Romeo, eight years old, played soccer while sporting his dad’s AC Milan jersey. Throughout the weekend, reports that stated that the family had fired 14 employees at their several properties were denied by their spokesperson. Some have reported that Victoria called in a money specialist to help the couple with their finances and overly expensive lifestyle.

Despite this, chef and friend Gordon Ramsay has confirmed reports that he will be opening a pub with David Beckham in Los Angeles. It will reportedly have a “modern British” theme, and will be somewhere that the families can “go and have fun”.

England’s bid for the 2018 World Cup has been stepped up a gear this week as the ‘Back to Bid Week’ was launched with the support of host David Beckham the former captain of England.

Beckham is serving as vice president of the bid and is asking the whole country to support England’s bid by attending a series of campaigns and events that are scheduled over the course of next week.

The former England captain stated that the support from the public, the team has seen has been great but now that it is time for the Bid Week it is time for the nation to once again pull together and work as a team to secure the World Cup.

Beckham continued to say that he has little doubt that fans from all over the country will pull together in an effort to display to the FIFA Inspection Team that they can offer the best festival and passion that anyone has ever seen at the World Cup.

Over the course of the next seven days football grounds and cities throughout England will be covered in banners and flags that say ‘Back the Bid’ and many events from general football  games to children’s coaching sessions will be held.

In order to show that England is a suitable host for the next World Cup events will occur in all 12 of the candidate cities and many sponsors, celebrities, business, and schools are expected to offer their support in an attempt to show England in its best light.

A football supporter who was accused of trespassing at the World Cup for walking into England’s dressing room must wait until next week to hear his sentence. Pavlos Joseph aged 32 from London appeared at a Cape Town special World Cup Court, but his case was delayed until Wednesday.

Craig Webster, his solicitor, requested that the case be adjourned because he was waiting for CCTV footage from the Green Point stadium that documented the event. At a hearing previous to the latest one, Joseph was banned from attending any future World Cup matches, was released on a £44 bail, and had his passport taken until sentencing is complete.

Webster asked the case to be postponed until Wednesday, which magistrate Azix Hamied granted.  The footage is expected to be in the solicitor’s hands by then. Joseph claimed that he was searching for a toilet after the match was over when a security guard appeared and directed him towards the players’ tunnel.

After he turned the wrong way he said that he ran into David Beckham and asked him what he was going to do to turn England around. The incident caused the Football Association to issue a complaint to Fifa, the World Cup organizer.

A spokeswoman for the UK police forces in South Africa stated that a football banning order would not be issued due to the fact the incident was not violent in nature. Joseph stated that he then told Beckham he was searching for a toilet.

Just as the World Cup kicks off, it’s sobering to think that the World’s biggest sporting event requires a huge amount of insurance cover.  Everything from natural disasters and terrorism to player injuries and household damage, there are a huge amount of eventualities must be insured for, which means that there is a multi billion pound risk industry that surrounds the World Cup.

Here are some example World Cup Risk Factors:

FIFA alone has purchased $650 million in insurance for total cancellation of the World Cup 2010

22% have seen friends or family spill food or drink while watching sport on TV – Indian food caused the worst stains, leading insurers to urge football fans not to get “curried away”

A footballer at the peak of his career who is playing for one of their nation’s top leagues, could be covered by approximately £50 million worth of insurance

David Beckham has taken out the biggest personal insurance policy in sporting history at £100 million

In 2006, Paul Hucker from Ipswich took out insurance against ‘football trauma’ so that he would be compensated with £1m in damages if England were knocked out early of the World Cup

Watch this video to learn more fascinating facts about the World Cup insurance industry.

David Beckham is still the highest earning football player across the globe for the third year in a row, according to the annual feature in Forbes magazine. In 2009 the 35 year old football player earned £40m out of which 80% came from his sponsors, who include Giorgio Armani, Adidas, and Motorola. Beckham unfortunately is predicted to lose some of his larger sponsorship money this year due to the fact that he tore his archilles tendon in March, which will force him to sit out the South African World Cup. Second on the Forbes list was Christiano Ronaldo who earned £30m in the past year. Credits to his name include the 2008 World Player of the Year and the title of the highest salary paid football player in the world when Real Madrid purchased him from Manchester United. His contract is for six years and started at about £15.5m but will increase by a quarter every year after. Sponsors of Ronaldo include Coca-Cola, Giorgio Armani, and Nike. In third place on the list of top earners is Kaka also a Madrid player who earns £25m per year. His sponsors are also Giorgio Armani and Adidas. Fourth place is Ronaldinho who also earns £25m per year and in fifth place is the Barcelona striker from France Thierry Henry who earns about £24m per year. Last year Beckham was estimated by Forbes to have earned £46m while Ronaldinho was estimated to make £33m in second place and Henry was in third place with £28m.

David Beckham is known for his great figure whenever he slides into a nice pair of keks, but it is about to get more personal as he will soon design his own clothing line and even model the entire range himself.

The news comes after he officially signed into a deal to follow his wife into the fashion industry after the World Cup is over this year, when he will temporarily hang up his cleats and pen menswear designs for the top couple’s DVB fashion line.

According to a source that knows the famous couple they have been working together on her already popular fashion ranges with Armani and that he has big plans for his own lines.

The source continued to say that fashion is a passion of David’s and that it is only logical that he would want to work on his own fashion line.

His wife, Victoria better known as Posh, established herself as a fashion designer after ending her career as a pop icon with the Spice Girls.

Since she entered the fashion world she has earned millions from her designs that include lines of sunglasses, dresses, and jeans.

David also has modelled already for Emporio Armani underpants and is usually seen around town in the most popular designs, although the skirt that he famously wore while in the South of France may be one of his most known fashion faux pas that is not likely to make an appearance in the line.