Beckham Retires

On May 16th, 2013, it became official—David Beckham, announced he would be retiring from playing at the end of this current season.

But what has his playing career been like? Lets look back at a few highlights...

We all knew this day would come sooner rather than later....

Just a year after leaving home at the age of 16 Beckham signed a youth training contract with Manchester United, he won the FA Youth Cup with a squad that also featured Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Gary Neville and Nicky Butt.

Later in the year, Beckham would be given his first-team debut in the League Cup and would sign his first professional contract shortly after that on January 8th, 1993.

Later in the 1994-95 season, Beckham was finally given his Premier League debut against Leeds United. He would go on to make four appearances in the league that season, as United missed out to Blackburn Rovers for the title.

On the opening day of the 1996-97 season, Beckham edged himself toward being a household name by scoring from inside his own half against Wimbledon.

Just a few weeks following his halfway-line goal against Wimbledon, Beckham made his England debut in a World Cup qualifying match against Moldova.

After riding the bench for the first two games of the World Cup in 1998, Beckham was handed his first start in the game against Columbia. He showed manager Glenn Hoddle what he had been missing by curling home a free-kick.

The lowest point of Beckham's career came later in the 1998 World Cup in the round of 16 against Argentina.

Beckham was fouled by Diego Simone flicked his boot into the calf of the Argentine, who fell to the floor like he had been shot.Beckham got a red card and became the scapegoat as England lost on penalties.

Manchester United wrapped up their historic treble in 1999 with the dramatic last-gasp win over Bayern Munich.

Becks started in center midfield that day due to the suspensions of Roy Keane and Paul Scholes, and it was his two corners in injury time that led to United's two goals.

England are losing 2-1 to Greece, needing a point to qualify for the 2002 World Cup. In the closing moments of the game, they win a free-kick.

England's captain, Beckham swings his right foot, wraps it around the ball and curls the ball over the wall and into the goal !

In the summer of 2003, Beckham left Manchester United to sign with Real Madrid's "Galacticos" for a fee of £24.5 million.

In his fourth and final season at Real Madrid, Beckham finally won the La Liga title.

Beckham scored a total of 20 goals in 155 games at Real.

In January 2007, Beckham announced he would be moving to the L.A. Galaxy of Major League Soccer at the end of his season with Real Madrid.

His move created a huge media buzz across the planet, and he made his debut against Chelsea in the World Series of Soccer.

A tumultuous start to his career in L.A., sandwiched between two loan spells with AC Milan, was remedied in November 2011, when the L.A. Galaxy became MLS Cup winners.The L.A. Galaxy and Beckham would repeat the feat in 2012.

Beckham announced he would be leaving the L.A. Galaxy following the 2012 season. Despite all of the rumors of clubs he could potentially join, on January 13, 2013, he announced he would be signing with PSG for the remainder of the Ligue 1 season and that he would be donating his salary to a local children's charity.

He would retire following the Ligue 1 season with PSG, with just two games remaining on the schedule.