Being David Beckham is now a lifestyle. Like George Best, whose name is inextricably linked with the Swinging Sixties, the Manchester United midfielder personifies his era, one obsessed with celebrity and image over substance.

A change of Beckham hairstyle is headline news. His dress sense is as closely watched as that of supermodel Kate Moss. His appearances with wife Victoria, a former Spice Girl, trigger photographer frenzy. Every man, woman and child in England has an opinion about Beckham. A national hate figure after being sent off in the 1998 World Cup, he is now captain of his country and a devoted father of two.

He is almost as famous in Japan, South Africa, Italy or China - indeed any country where children can mimic Beckham's trademark free kicks in the park, alleyway or back garden.

It is this popularity which has attracted the moneymen of Real Madrid - who agreed a fee of 35 million euros (US$41.31 million) for the 28-year-old on Tuesday - just as much as his talent with a ball.

His presence in the white shirt of the Spanish giants, the only club in world soccer that can rival United's allure, will stoke huge sponsorship income, replica kit sales and the club's brand image, particularly in Asia.

But there are risks for Beckham in a move away from Old Trafford.

He has spent his entire career at the world's richest football club - and the one he has always supported - where he has been worshipped ever since scoring a goal from the halfway line against Wimbledon in August 1996.

Beckham now moves to a country where he does not speak the language, and to a club which is ruthless when it believes a player has failed, however temporarily.

United regular

Beckham signed schoolboy forms with United on his 14th birthday, before joining the club as a 16-year-old trainee in 1991. By 1995-96 he was a regular in a team that just couldn't stop winning.

They scooped the Premier League and FA Cup double that season and won another five League titles, hitting the jackpot in 1999 with the treble of Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League victories.

But more astonishing than the racks of medals in Beckham's trophy cabinet is his transformation from football's most hated figure to exemplary England captain.

The midfielder's petulant kick at Argentina's Diego Simeone during the 1998 World Cup led to him being sent off and England departing the tournament. England fans turned viciously on the golden boy.

Back in England Beckham was abused by fans at every ground he visited. West Ham fans held up red cards reading: "You're a disgrace to your country."

The United player kept his counsel, winning back public opinion with his stoicism in the face of the insults.

"It went through my mind during those dark days that I might have to go and play abroad," he said at the start of the 2002 World Cup.

"I feared for my safety at times because there were so many threats coming through."

England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson gave him the full-time captaincy in February 2001 after a trial run under caretaker Peter Taylor a year earlier and Beckham hasn't looked back.

This recovery would not have been possible, however, without his pop star girlfriend and now wife.

Beckham met Victoria "Posh" Adams in the mid-1990s when she was a member of the Spice Girls. The perfect celebrity match-up, the couple rivalled the late Princess Diana for paparazzi attention.

In a second "royal" wedding, rivalling that of Prince Edward and Sophie Rhys Jones, they married in July 1999, a few months after their first son Brooklyn was born.

Thrones were used in the extravagant ceremony but the Beckhams paid no attention to the sneering. Despite the many doubters at the time they married, they have a strong marriage and now have a second child, Romeo.

Posh influence

Victoria's strong influence over her husband has contributed to his ever-changing hairstyle, tattoos and development into a fashion icon.

Glenn Hoddle, then England manager, omitted him from the England side at the start of the 1998 World Cup, accusing him of being unfocused after he was photographed wearing a sarong.

Before the 2002 World Cup he became the first man to be on the cover of British fashion magazine Marie Claire and Japanese teenagers flocked to hairdressers across the host nation to copy his Mohican haircut.

Beckham, whose fame as a footballer is rivalled only by Brazil striker Ronaldo, is now at the peak of his game. He joins a Madrid team that boasts Ronaldo, France's Zinedine Zidane and Luis Figo of Portugal in probably the most star-studded club in soccer history.

He is the first major English player to move abroad since Steve McManaman went to Real Madrid in 1999. McManaman has spent much of his time on the substitutes' bench in the Spanish capital, a fate Beckham will be desperate to avoid.

(Agencies via Xinhua June 23, 2003)