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David Beckham: My Daughter Harper Says I’m “So Chubby” Now

From steamy soccer star to “chubby” carpool dad! 

David Beckham retired from his celebrated, long-running athletic career in 2013, and in the years since, he’s picked up a new job as a chauffeur for his and Victoria Beckham‘s four children, and according to his youngest, added a few pounds to his lean soccer body.

“My little girl turned ’round to me the other day,” Beckham began of daughter Harper, 3 in an interview with Jimmy Kimmel on Wednesday, Jan. 28. “I’d just bathed her and I was in the bath as well, so I got her out and you know, I was toweling her down and she said, ‘Daddy, I love you so much but I don’t like you, you’re so chubby!’ I mean, I didn’t think I was!”

Related: PHOTOS: The Beckham Family

The allegedly softened-up soccer star, 39 — who still looks buff in those famous H&M underwear ads — went on to explain that many of his hours are now spent in the car, rather than on the field, perhaps accounting for what his daughter sees as a “chubby stomach.”

David Beckham JKL
David Beckham on Jimmy Kimmel Live

“To be honest, I’ve become a taxi driver overnight with the kids,” he said on Jimmy Kimmel Live! of his retirement activities. “I’m literally an Uber driver now. I take them from seven in the morning to the schools — I have four drop-offs at four different schools — so I get that done in an hour and fifteen minutes. Then I pick my little girl up at 12, and then the boys at four, and then the boys train in a soccer academy every single night of the week so I’m busy every night until 9:30 and then I’m at home.”

Beckham and his wife Victoria Beckham welcomed their first child Brooklyn, now 15, in March 1999 just months before he married the former Spice Girls singer, 40, in July 1999. They went on to welcome son Romeo, 12, son Cruz, 9, and the aforementioned Harper. Beckham spilled to Kimmel that while his retirement involves far little fanfare than his years as the world’s most famous soccer player, he is enjoying the quieter life. 

Related: PHOTOS: David Beckham and His Sons

“It’s great,” the former Manchester United star said. “I’ve been playing football for the last 22 years, not always with the family, of course, I travel a lot. It’s nice to actually be at home and spend some time with them and be a taxi driver.”

While Beckham is getting a kick out of his new role, not all of his four children are as enthusiastic about having the Brit around.

David and kids
David Beckham and sons Romeo Beckham and Cruz Beckham attend Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Sports Awards in 2014.

“The younger one obviously loves me taking her to school,” he began. “The two smaller boys, they love it, apart from my middle son Romeo, who’s 12, he’s just started — as soon as I take him into school, I’ll go to kiss him and he’ll turn his cheek. I will then pick him up and give him a bear hug and kiss him in front of his friends.”

Related: PHOTOS: Victoria Beckham's Style Evolution

“That happens with him and then my eldest, Brooklyn, who’s 16 in March, I take him to school and he says to me, ‘Daddy, park around the corner.’ Sorry, ‘Dad, park around the corner,’ not Daddy, he’s passed that,” Beckham continued. “He tells me to park him around the corner, and then he gets out and he walks ’round to his school. He did it to me the other day after doing it about five times on the trot, so I’m driving around and he’s just walking in his school, and I open the window and I said, ‘Brooklyn! I love you!’ Obviously it didn’t go down very well.”

“Victoria did have to remind them the other day, ‘Actually, you’ve got quite a cool dad,'” he added. “It didn’t seem to make any difference.”

Watch Beckham gush about his kids in the video above!

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