Champions of love! Victoria Beckham, Perrie Edwards and more celebrities have sparked romances with professional soccer athletes.
The Spice Girls performer met now-husband David Beckham in 1997 after she attended a Manchester United game. He proposed less than one year later in January 1998, and the couple exchanged vows in July 1999. Their eldest son, Brooklyn, was 4 months old at the time and served as ring bearer during the ceremony.
While reflecting on two decades of marriage, the former LA Galaxy player recalled one of his earliest interactions with his wife. “She came to watch me in a game in London with her manager at the time and one of the other Spice Girls, Sporty Spice,” he said on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in February 2020. “I know of [the band], obviously, because they were pretty big at that time.”
David teased that he and his teammates “all had a favorite Spice Girl” during the pop group’s rise to stardom in the ’90s. “[Victoria] was obviously my favorite,” he confessed.
The twosome chatted again at a different game, and David worked up the courage to ask the singer out. “We talked for about an hour in the player’s lounge and then … she wrote her number down on a train ticket, which I still have,” he mused as the talk show’s audience applauded.
With more than 20 years in the spotlight under their belts, the couple have relied on one another to overcome scrutiny. “People have been making things up about our relationship for 20 years,” Victoria said in her October 2018 British Vogue cover story. “We both realize that we are stronger together than we are as individuals.”
She continued: “It’s all about the family unit. We are much stronger, the six of us, than we would be if we were individuals. We respect that family bond and that is key.”
The Beckhams may be relationship goals, but not all sports romances have had the same happy ending. Shakira welcomed two sons with Gerard Piqué after they began dating in 2011, but the pair announced their split in June 2022.
“I’ve remained quiet and just tried to process it all. … It’s hard to talk about it, especially because I’m still going through it, and because I’m in the public eye and because our separation is not like a regular separation,” the “Hips Don’t Lie” artist told Elle three months later. “It’s been tough not only for me, but also for my kids. Incredibly difficult.”
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Scroll down to see which soccer stars have scored A-list romances over the years:
