David Beckham began his professional football career in early 1992, at the age of 17, so he has now been a professional football player for over 19 years.
He started his career playing for Manchester United, and he was one of the players who helped the team to win the Youth Cup in 1992. Soon after that he was playing for the first-team and was soon given a contract. He first played premier league for Manchester in 1995. He played mainly for United until he joined Real Madrid in 2003.
In fact Beckham's life as a footballer goes back well beyond the start of his professional career. He began to play as a child, and even while at school he always knew that he wanted to be a footballer. Both his parents were big football fans and keen supporters of Manchester United, so they were happy to encourage him to play.