End of An Era: David Beckham Announces Retirement From Football

David Beckham

Former England captain David Beckham announced on Thursday that he will retire from professional soccer at the end of this season.

 

He said in a statement that: "I'm thankful to PSG for giving me the opportunity to continue but I feel now is the right time to finish my career, playing at the highest level. I want to thank all my teammates, the great managers that I had the pleasure of learning from. I also want to thank the fans who have all supported me and given me the strength to succeed."

 

Beckham earned 115 caps for England, a record for an outfield player, and won the Champions League, sixPremier League titles and two FA Cups with Manchester United. He also won league titles with Real Madrid in Spain, LA Galaxy in the United States and PSG in France.

Neymar Named World’s Most Marketable Athlete Ahead Of Messi, Bolt, Woods

The Brazilian forward, is number one ahead of superstars like Lionel Messi, Tiger Woods, Usain Bolt and Lewis Hamilton, in the list of 50 compiled by SportsPro magazine.

Neymar

David Cushnan, SportsPro editor-in-chief, explained why the 21-year-old tops the list.

“Essentially the crux of it is we are trying to predict marketing value over the next three years. We’re trying to forecast who is going to be worth investing from a sponsorship point of view but also who perhaps offers real value for money.

“Our feeling is that Neymar has the World Cup coming up next year, where he’s going to be the star at home, he’s a megastar in Brazil.

“He still has this big move to come, probably to Barcelona, that will launch him to whole new level of fame. And there is no doubt that Messi is the more talented player but you can make the argument he is not particularly charismatic off the pitch, not animated or confident in front of the camera.

“You can’t ignore him but when it comes to marketing our conclusion was Neymar. From a marketability and brand appeal point of view, if you’re picking someone for three years he’s the guy.”

SPORTSPRO’S TOP 50 MOST MARKETABLE ATHLETES Sportspro take the following into account when compiling the list: Value for money, age, home market, charisma, willingness to be marketed and crossover appeal.

1 Neymar – football, Brazil
2 Lionel Messi, football, Argentina
3 Rory McIlroy, golf, UK
4 Robert Griffin III, American football, USA
5 Usain Bolt, athletics, Jamaica
6 Novak Djokovic, tennis, Serbia
7 Lewis Hamilton, Formula One, UK
8 Cristiano Ronaldo, football, Portugal
9 Sloane Stephens, tennis, USA
10 Blake Griffin, basketball, USA
11 Tiger Woods, golf, USA
12 Sebastian Vettel, Formula One, Germany
13 Virat Kohli, cricket, India
14 LeBron James, basketball, USA
15 Victoria Azarenka, tennis, Belarus
16 Maria Sharapova, tennis, Russia
17 Alan Oliveira, Paralympic sprinter, Brazil
18 Andy Murray, tennis, UK
19 Alex Ovechkin, ice hockey, Russia
20 Missy Franklin, swimming, USA
21 Vincent Kompany, football, Belgium
22 Carmelo Anthony, basketball, USA
23 Caroline Wozniacki, tennis, Denmark
24 Sergio Perez, Formula One, Mexico
25 Rafael Nadal, tennis, Spain
26 Lindsey Vonn, skiing, USA
27 Alex Morgan, football, USA
28 Mike Trout, baseball, USA
29 Jack Wilshere, football, UK
30 Yani Tseng, golf, Taiwan
31 Manny Pacquiao, boxing, Philippines
32 Saul Alvarez, boxing, Mexico
33 Lucas Moura, football, Brazil
34 Bubba Watson, golf, USA
35 Shaun White, snow/skateboarding, USA
36 Ellyse Perry, cricket/football, Australia
37 James Harden, basketball, USA
38 Shinji Kagawa, football, Japan
39 Seth Jones, ice hockey, USA
40 Laura Robson, tennis, UK
41 David Rudisha, long-distance runner, Kenya
42 Mark Cavendish, cycling, UK
43 Stacy Lewis, golf, USA
44 Kim Yu-Na, figure skating, South Korea
45 Danica Patrick, Nascar, USA
46 Anderson Silva, MMA, Brazil
47 Dale Earnhardt Jnr, Nascar, USA
48 Gareth Bale, football, UK
49 Robert Kubica, Formula One, Poland
50 Katie Walsh, jockey, UK

Courtesy of Naij News (Naij)