David Beckham has officially become the first British athlete to reach billionaire status, after the Sunday Times Rich List on May 15 estimated his and Victoria Beckham’s combined fortune at about $1.6 billion. The former England captain and the fashion designer now rank No. 2 on the wealthiest sportspeople list, behind Bernie Ecclestone, whose net worth is about $2.7 billion.
The milestone matters because Beckham is not an active player. He retired from soccer in 2013, yet his wealth has kept rising through a portfolio that stretches well beyond the pitch. Victoria Beckham founded her eponymous fashion label in 2008, and estimated in October that the brand could fetch around $700 million if she chose to sell it. Together, the couple are said to have earned more than $600 million in the last year alone, a figure that reflects how far their business empire has moved from Beckham’s playing days.
The sharpest lift came from Inter Miami. Beckham invested in the club in 2018 and owns a 26 percent stake, a bet that grew more valuable after Lionel Messi signed in 2023 and turned the team into one of the sport’s most watched properties. That kind of growth helps explain why Beckham is now being measured alongside a new class of celebrity billionaires rather than retired athletes.
The comparison is striking. Taylor Swift was officially named a billionaire in October 2023, and Forbes put her total net worth at exactly $2 billion earlier this year. Kim Kardashian is reported to be worth $1.9 billion, while SKIMS was valued at $5 billion in its most recent funding round in 2025. Selena Gomez, who founded Rare Beauty in 2019, has had her wealth estimated by Forbes at around $700 million, though places her just above $1 billion.
That wider list shows where Beckham sits now: not simply as a football icon who cashed in on fame, but as one of the few retired sports figures whose money has kept compounding through ownership, branding and fashion. The Beckhams’ rise is also part of a broader celebrity-rich list that has increasingly blurred the line between entertainment, sport and private equity-style dealmaking.
For Victoria Beckham, the brand remains central to the family’s fortune. For David Beckham, the Inter Miami stake is the engine, and Messi’s arrival appears to have accelerated it. The question now is not whether he joined the billionaire club. He has. The issue is how much higher the Beckhams can climb as their businesses, and the teams tied to them, keep growing.
