[Music] today we bring you an inspiring conversation with David Beckham UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador football legend and 2025 Crystal award recipient at the world economic Forum Beckham reflects on his two decades of advocating for children's rights education and well-being discover how his philanthropic efforts are empowering the Next Generation and making a lasting impact worldwide I first met met David with his business partner and best friend Jamie Suter who is here at authentic Brands and we'll talk about David Beckham the businessman David Beckham the family man but we're here really to talk about David Beckham the philanthropist
and you've really showed us that through the power of sport you can do good this UNICEF relationship goes back a long time how did you get involved with them um wait does firstly good morning everyone I know it's an early morning and I'm sure a few of you had a late night last night so thank you for at least being here uh I'll do my best to keep you all awake um but you know my my relationship with UNICEF is the most important work that I do um it's the work that I enjoy most even
though I enjoy all of my work that I do I never consider it work because it's something that inspires me every single trip that I go on every child that I meet um but it started a long time ago when I was actually 17 years old with Manchester United I was on tour in Thailand and I was asked to go to a women's center to see the work that UNICEF do and um it was incredible and I knew then even at 17 years old this is what I want to do this is what I want
to be part of so when I got the call from cop and an to be a Goodwill Ambassador um you know it was quite an emotional moment because for myself as a footballer from the East End of London to be able to be part of an organ organization like UNICEF that was helping and is helping and always helps young children around the world you know I was very privileged with that so it's been long-standing um I've seen and met some incredible children over that time um but you know the issues and situations continue every single
day uh and I will continue to fight for children's rights uh until I can fight no more well I think we saw in the video you don't just talk the talk you walk the walk you travel you get out there what are some of the most memorable experiences for you you know every trip that I go on is a memorable experience good bad um every child that I meet has a different situation and a and a different worry and different dreams and different hopes you know the first time that I sat down with UNICEF I
said okay take me to a place that that is the worst and needs the the the biggest help and the first trip that we went on was Sierra Leon and it was just after the conflict and that was a long time ago and I met some incredible children and I always tell the story that whenever I meet these children you know obviously I'm very lucky to have four amazing children these children are in completely different situations to what my children are and to other children around Europe that I've met and around the world that I've
met but they have the same smile they have the same Smile as whatever situations they're in their smiles are the same with these kids um so there's so many different situations that I've been in that I've seen you know I visited so many different places like I said Thailand Nepal China uh and recently India which India really opened my eyes because these young people were championing championing for for change and I went to this this this Women's Center that these girls were incredible talented driven um and it was inspiring what about the seven fund how
did that come to be what is that well we came up with the seven fund because you know over my time with UNICEF we've seen an incredible amount of change uh and I've seen personally you know um there were certain things that we had to really focus on um you know education you know forced Early Child child marriage uh immunization um so all of these things that we really needed to focus on and that's why we set up the seven funds so we've we've we've been able to to help millions of children over that time
uh it's it's something that we've been very proud of but during that time I also noticed how girls were getting left behind and that is one thing obviously having a daughter myself and seeing how girls get left behind and they don't have you know access to education and to health care and they are forced into early marriage which then takes them out of their education um so I wanted to focus the next few years on that and that's what I'm focusing you know on this year teenage girls empowering empowering them you know to live to
their full potential they should have the right and the same access as the boys do you know I'm not saying that I'm stepping away from helping the bo boys but my main focus is the girls because when you when you Empower a a young girl you know it uplifts them it uplifts their family it uplifts their communities um and that's good for everybody that's good for the world and and that's one thing that we're focused on so how much time you've got a lot going on so how much time do you spend with UNICEF and
on the trips and making sure that these funds go to the right places I you know it's a daily thing in all honest honesty you know within the office it's daily thing we're always communicating with UNICEF we're always communicating with the team that we have um I also always try to do at least one two trips a year um and they're always major trips and they're always shining a light and that I think that's the one thing that I can do you know is shine a light on these situations and that's one thing that my
platform gives you know throughout my career I've been successful on the field I've been successful with business but what gives me the platform to help organizations like UNICEF is the fact that I've been successful on the field and and that's what I want to to to do with the platform that I have they probably go nuts when you when you come visit well and that's the amazing thing you know I I step into these communities and these Villages that don't have TV that don't have radio and you walk out onto you know a a soccer
field a football field with a and these kids light up you know whether they know me or not and most of the time they do know me purely because cuz everybody knows you they well not just that but you know whether it's they've heard the name Beckham on the radio you know or whether they they've seen their father wearing an old Manchester United shirt or an old England shirt you know it is great to have that and it is great to be able to use that for good speaking of using it for good you also
participate in the king's fund that is that something more recent what's your relationship I always get emotional talking about anything that I do with our royal family because I've always been a huge royalist I was brought up in a family in a household that that adored and loved everything that came with the royal family so you know over the years I've done a lot with uh the prince of Welles uh and I've always been there whenever he's asked me to get involved with things you know whether it be whether it be the London air ambulance
service which we raised funds to to to get two new helicopters for for London you know these are the things that when I was a kid I used to see the helicopters going over and you knew exactly what they were going to do they were on the way to an emergency so to be involved in that has always been a yes for me you know whenever the prince of Wells sends me a message and says I need you to do this or be there it's always a yes so when the king asked me to be
part of his foundation um I was very honored very privileged I rang my mom straight away and said you're not going to believe what uh I've just been asked to do what did she say uh my mom always just bursts into tears in all honesty cuz she's so proud of obviously What I've Done throughout my career but she's also proud and she knows my grandparents would have been proud that I am such a I've played such an important role within the royal family and and the Charities that they have so to be involved in the
king's Foundation you know our King is an incredible man he's an incredible man but he's not just been an incredible man for the last 5 10 years he's been an incredible man for decades you know the work that he has done to empower young people um you know the Grassroots work you know all of that all of those you know sustainable work all of these things all of those lost arts that are that are that are lost and he's trying to bring them back you know I visited recently uh I visited him and there's a
couple of great pictures that I've had of me laughing with him and you know best friends best friends apparently um but you know we have we have very similar interests and I think he's is he really into beekeeping too beekeeping yeah who who is that a very popular thing to be into in the UK uh well I didn't think it would be but apparently it is so he's into bees I'm into bees he's into the countryside I'm into the countryside so and he's into empowering young people so um yeah so I'm I'm very honored with
that role they don't really go into the philanthropic part in the crown so I think many people don't know yeah that it's a it's a big part of the monarchy I think you know we've all we all watched the crown uh we all learned a lot from the crown you know I is it accurate uh I wouldn't know I wouldn't know you know you know the monarchy yeah anyway so what what's next on the philanthropic front I mean it sounds like you have your hands fell on UNICEF the Kings Foundation is there anything else you'd
like to do to make a difference to be honest we want to just continue to empower young people I think you know it's it's a silly thing to say and an obvious thing to say but they are our future and uh we need to continue to empower you know especially young girls um to to live to their full potential um and when you give children the tools when you give them the opportunities they respond what about empowering your young people you're a Family Guy four kids they're all very famous they didn't grow up the way
you grew up no and they didn't grow up certainly as you mentioned the way some of these kids around the world so how do you instill the the kind of values that you're talking about your kids I think by giving them the the values that we had growing up you know my mine and Victoria's children have grown up totally different to to to how we grew up but we instilled from a very young AG age the right values you know my sons you you'll never see my sons walk into a room and not let a
lady go through the door first or Shake people's hand you know whether you think your children are watching or listening they are most of the time and luckily for me you know my children have noticed you know when my wife leaves the table I stand up it's old traditions like that that I tried to pass on to my my children and thankfully you know they've turned out great and I'm me and Victoria are very proud of our children you know not not because they have their own dreams and Ambitions and they're working and they're doing
exactly what they want to do but more because of the values that they have and let's hope they continue you stand up every time she leaves the table Yeah I can't even I can't imagine my H I do get strange looks at times from people they're like why are you old why it is old school but you know what it's how I was bought up and I've tried to pass it on to my kids and my kids do it they don't always do it but they know that's what Dad does so we watched in the
Netflix movie and learned a lot about you I think you really opened up and your relationship and your marriage and I know Victoria is doing a Netflix movie of her of her own she is why why did you decide now is the time to let people in um well it took me actually 10 years to do my document uh because I never really felt that I was ready to look back at my career at that point when I finished when I retired I I believe that there was more I wanted to do so it took
me a while to agree to it and then it came around to the 10y year anniversary of me retiring I thought maybe this is the the right time to do it so then we looked for the right director we found Fisher Stevens then we looked to have the right partner with Netflix and then it was all about fer making me as uncomfortable as possible to deliver what he delivered and he did that every time I sat down with him I felt uncomfortable I didn't want to be there I didn't really want to talk about things
because I'd never talked about those things before you know I'd put them away in a box I'd locked it up and thought I'm never going to have to talk about it but it was good for me you know I hold a lot of things in and it was good for me to actually sit down and talk about these things so we you know I said to Victoria I'm only going to do this once and I'm going to do it right and it turned out great you know to to know that it was so popular around
the world and people got to learn a different thing about me you know that made me very proud of of the show that we made so then leading on to Victoria's that actually it was quite hard to get her to agree to it and I was the only one that was going to make that happen so why she didn't want to do it she did well I no she didn't just well purely because you I wanted to do it and showcase what she's all about you know people see her as the designer the creator of
obviously her beauty brand the mother the wife The Spice Girl I was going to say Posh first and foremost but I wanted to highlight how hard she works you know this is a woman I've never met a harder working woman apart from you I've never wor I've never met a harder working woman than my wife and I wanted to show that I wanted to show everything that goes into her design everything that goes into her brand what she does outside it all the decisions that she makes and that's the only way of doing it so
again we're doing it with Netflix we're doing it with our production company um and so far I think it's going great and it's just going to highlight how hard she works and and the things that she does and I think people are going to be quite surprised how she juggles things because you know she's she's a multitasker and that's one thing that I don't think I am how well how did your kids react to the documentary um well they they well none of us had seen it until the till the the premere so be I
made that conscious decision to give that power to Fisher Stevens the director and Netflix and my team you know my team had seen Clips but you know the edit I wanted them to have full control cuz I think that that was important and it came out in it so we sat there at the premere and uh I could see one of my son getting quite emotional Brooklyn because he lived through that whole time you know he's 25 years old so he'd lived through every moment of my career and you know mine and Victoria's relationship then
you had Romeo that was 19 years old no that was 20 years old at the time and I could see him and he said dad you and Mom worked really hard to get where you are then Cruz my um my youngest boy turned around to me and he said dad you were really good at football uh that was his reaction I was like yeah well Dad used to do thator um and and Harper was just I mean Harper sat there and I was she was probably the one as well as Brooklyn that I was probably
most worried about watching it because he'd lived through the whole thing and you know there's some moments where you see him crying in the car because of the the amount of people around the car in the paparazzi so I was worried on that side for him but then I was also worried for Harper because you know it's the first time that she'd seen all of that so you know but they loved it and and the moment at the end where people all talk about you know the moment where Mom and Dad are dancing in the
tent and in and embarrassing them you know that was a moment where I look back and it just naturally happened you know we'd been in that dancing is like went viral it went viral I know and it was you know that was that was one of the most rewarding moments for me seeing you you know people in their kitchens doing the same you know seeing it seeing them do it with their children or their their parents or their animals you know all of those things happen through that moment and you know and and that was
just a natural moment that actually happens most weekends you know Mom and Dad always embarrass the kids at the end night most weekends yeah yeah you know after a couple of couple goals couple of drinks after a couple drinks I think what resonated with people is how authentic you were and how much you opened up and speaking of I do want to talk about David Beckham the businessman because you've been very successful I mentioned the partnership with authentic Brands so they own a majority of your Brands all the deals you do the endorsements and the
business how's that going um you know it's going incredibly well you know I'm very lucky to have the business that I've had but I think I recognized very early on in my career that I wanted to have a business outside of my career when I finish so I built the business up to a certain point to do that and when I built the business up to a certain point I knew that then I wanted to scale it but I knew I wanted to scale it with the right people I didn't just want to hand you
know a certain amount of my brand over to someone to let them do whatever they wanted with it so you know I've known jamy Suter for over a decade um and I know his values I know his family values I know him as a businessman I know how hard he works and I knew that when I met Jamie at that point it wasn't the right time to go into business I didn't feel my business was in the right position to actually you know take it to another level I knew that I had to build it
a bit more over the time but I also watched what Jamie was doing with authentic over the last 10 years you know he's built this incredibly successful brand for 15 years now and I knew eventually that was the man that I wanted to be in partnership with and business with so you know over that time you know I was watching what Jamie was doing I was watching how hard he was working and the scale he was going to and then when it came to the point where I was like okay I'm ready to scale my
business I'm ready to take it to the next level me and Jamie had a conversation and that conversation probably lasted 5 minutes and we knew that we wanted to be in business together you know I know Jamie as the businessman but and I love him as the businessman but what I love him is for his values what I love him for is his family values all four of his boys are in the business all four boys have the values that he has his wife runs the show of course as she should as she should but
Jamie is an incredible partner to be in business with and like I said you know I wanted to take my business to the next level and you know the scale that he has done to authentic is what I wanted to do with my business and and that's you know being a shareholder of authentic and being a partner with Jamie you know it's something that I'm very excited about the future it's been a good place to be one of your best business decisions certainly to to Americans has been inter Miami mhm you have an ownership state
and you somehow convinced Messi to come play in the United States yeah where what's what was the vision or the inspiration behind all that um I always wanted to give back to the game you know my dream was always to give back to football to soccer and you know punditry or management was something that I never saw myself going into you know my dream was always to own a team I always wanted to own a team so when I moved to America you know had the opportunity to put in one of my contracts or the
contract that at the end of my time there I could own a franchise and I could pick the city uh where it was going to be and I knew from day one that I wanted Miami I knew that that was the place where I wanted to be and a lot of people said to me it's a tough sporting City do you really want to go there and I was like that's exactly where I want to be why um because it was a challenge and I would say it's been the hardest challenge actually in my career
and in my business but the most rewarding it's the most rewarding for many reasons you know to see the team grow to see the franchise grow to see the club grow and to see what we have now you know we're building a new parcel we have a new parcel of land 30 32 acre parcel of land in Miami where we build building the new uh the new stadium um which uh Miami Freedom Park which which we're very excited about there'll be retail space there'll be parks there and obviously the stadium will be there so we're
very excited about that but you know I've when I moved to America yes I wanted to lift the game yes I wanted to be part of you know making soccer as popular as it is everywhere else around the world but I wanted to win I wanted to win on the field first off you know I had a six-year uh contract there and yes I wanted to build the game but but more importantly to me I wanted to win championships and luckily in the end I won two championships in America um but now being the owner
of a club that has the greatest player to have ever played the game you know that's down to people's opinion but in my opinion he's the greatest person to have played not that controversial the game not anymore so do you think MLS can be as popular as I do Europe I've always believed in the potential you know America is America simple as that it's a powerful country it's one of the the the the biggest and and greatest opportunities of countries and and PE and you believe that when I moved to America it's the land of
opportunity I knew that I wanted to live in America at one point and create a business and to create a business that we've done and I now sit back in my chair in Miami in that stadium and Leo walks on to that pitch and I'm like I'm I'm quite proud of that David who inspired is you my children my wife um children that I've met throughout the world um that I've worked with that I've helped that UNICEF have helped um you know every time that I go on one of these trips every time that I
do something for Unicef that inspires me but it's it's my children and it's my wife that motivates me simple as that you know like I said my my wife is hard working um but the reason I continue to work as hard as I do is for my children and I'm not talking about for their Futures but I want to set the right example you know when I retired 12 13 years ago now from playing I could have just sat back and and and enjoyed the moment but when I grew up at Manchester United you know
I had one of the biggest and best Business Leaders inspire me and teach me Sir Alex Ferguson and every time that we do something in business every time that we have some some success yeah of course we enjoy it we celebrate it but the next moment we're on to the next thing and that was exactly what Sir Alex Ferguson taught me he taught us when we won the treble in 1999 we broke all records it had never been done before we won the Champions League we won the FA Cup and we won the Premier League
it had never been done before the next morning the boss was said okay I'm glad you enjoyed that last night but today we go again and next year we do the same and and that's that's what I always had installed into me well David thank you very much for giving all of us a snapshot into how you think and how you operate um it really was a treat so thank you thank you thank you very [Music] visit our site englishspeech channel.com for exclusive access to video transcripts offline audio English lessons and private classes don't forget
to explore our free and new ebooks also subscribe to our Weekly Newsletter for the latest updates links in the description below thanks for your support [Music]
