Former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand has praised his former teammate David Beckham, claiming he fully deserves to be knighted by King Charles recently. The 50-year-old icon became the fifth person from the Red Devils to receive this prestigious honour.
He now joins the ranks of notables such as Sir Alex Ferguson, Sir Bobby Charlton and Sir Matt Busby who have been knighted. A product of United’s highly regarded academy and member of the illustrious graduating class of 1992, Beckham won a historic treble during his time at the club.
He won six Premier League titles and two FA Cups before moving to Real Madrid in 2003 to join the Galactico squad.
Beckham was made an OBE in 2003 and was widely expected to be knighted after 2011, following London’s successful bid to host the 2012 Olympics.
But it wasn’t until earlier this month that he was finally knighted for his services to sport and charity.
His wife Victoria Beckham also attended the ceremony at Windsor Castle to watch her husband become the first Premier League player to be knighted.
Now, former United colleague Ferdinand has praised Beckham, not only for his achievements on the football pitch, but also for his work off the pitch.
Ferdinand lavished praise on Beckham in a chat with LBC Radio, saying: “Listen, he deserves it. If you look at a player who has worked hard, I don’t think it came from nothing, it came from a place where he had to work hard to get to the level he is now. I don’t think anyone could have imagined that he would become such a global superstar icon.”
“He deserves it. I don’t know many people who work as hard as he does or put in as much effort as he does.
“And he became an icon not only on the football pitch, but also in many other fields off the pitch.
“So when someone deserves it and you see some guys winning awards like this and you think, ‘Oh,’ you have to think about why they’re winning awards and rack your brain a little bit every now and then. That’s not the case with this guy.”
