He’s one of the most famous and recognizable soccer players of all tie, That’s even true here in the States, the one country where the world’s most popular sport has, for some reason, not become the game that the rest of the world embraces and loves as much as their homeland itself. David Beckham never won a World Cup (England’s last win in the tournament was during the historic ’66 Cup,) and he probably wouldn’t make the top ten all time list, but David Beckham was one of the greatest Midfielders to ever play the game, one of England and Manchester United’s most loved and revered footballers to ever step on a pitch. Beyond the game, he has become an ambassador for the sport and an international fashion icon, along with his former Spice Girl wife, now a fashion designer in her own right.

But this wasn’t always the case. Beckham was not born synonymous with men’s style and did not become the paragon for men’s style overnight. It took many years of perfecting his look, a lot of awkward years, and A LOT of style misses in the past twenty years (remember the infamous Beckham cornrows? We sure as hell do.) Fortunately, he’s put the awkward and ridiculous looks behind him and is now the paragon of dapper gentlemanly style. Take a journey with us through the years as we go through the Beckham style lookbook, complete with the highs and lows of number seven’s journey to become the standard by which we gauge men’s style. Enjoy.

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