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‘There’s just something about this area. It’s just quirky. It’s got this New York and downtown LA [Los Angeles] feel about it. It’s a cool area.”
Greeting us with a warm handshake (which turned into a bit of an awkward bro-hug), a wide all-white smile and distinctly British “pleased to meet you” accent, David Beckham sat down and marvelled at the Johannesburg skyline.
Seated at the Living Room in Maboneng, Beckham said he was excited to come back to the trendy downtown area he visited four months ago, and that coming to South Africa is “amazing”.
“My favourite part of coming to South Africa is the energy of the people,” he said, making sure to emphasize the energy part again.
“The people are nice and welcoming and obviously there’s a lot of Manchester United fans here, so people are also nice to me for that reason,” he says with a cheeky smile crossing his face.
But it’s not football that Beckham was in South Africa for this time. The global sports icon has partnered with Scotch whisky maker Haig Club Clubman and launched the company’s “stand-out blue square bottle” on Wednesday evening.
“It’s an unusual partnership because obviously sportsman, alcohol world, you know,” he says with perfectly shaped, raised eyebrows, a head tilt and open palms, displaying his remarkable array of tattoos, indicating his awareness of the seemingly un-kosher nature of this alliance.
“I really knew nothing about whisky apart from that it looked cool to drink a glass of whisky on the rocks, or neat,” he jokes.
He has learnt a lot about the world of scotch in the last four years.
“Obviously, me being an ex-sportsman now is a perfect fit.”
A perfect fit for Haig, that is, with the David Beckham brand big all over the world, except, maybe, the remote regions of the Amazon. The alcohol company clearly scored big.
Beckham’s numerous partnerships and endorsement deals all put a pretty little sum into his bank account. Forbes recently estimated his career earnings to be more than $800 million (R9.5 billion), most of it accumulated after his football career.
However, with all that dosh, the slightly reserved superstar says it has not been difficult to stay grounded.
“I know why the brand is successful: it’s down to hard work, making the right decisions and choosing the right partners.
“I was brought up in a part of London where you are not allowed to get carried away with your success.”
He says his parents Sandra and David are the reason he remains grounded. “Success comes from hard work and I come from hard-working parents.”
But ask him about his family and watch as his face transforms instantly into joy and contentment. As a footballer, his time was not his own, what with the constant travelling, training and strict regimen. But since pivoting into the business world, he can pick and choose when and where he goes, and that has made family life a dream.
“I’ve got a 19-year-old son and he’s obviously been there for a majority of my [football] career and that was probably more intense than now,” he says.
“When I go away on a trip and when I need to go away and do business, that’s kind of now down to my personal schedule. Whereas when I was a footballer, it was not.”
So what does a former galactico and business mogul do when he is at home? Take the children to school.
“I get to see my kids a lot more, because obviously, taking the kids to school is important to me; I do that almost every day that I am there.”
Scroll through his social media accounts and you will see that, between his business interests, starting a grooming brand, starting his own football club and his charitable work with Unicef, the man affectionately known as Golden Balls by his superstar wife Victoria, loves posting about his family.
His last four Instagram posts, before Haig’s paid content, were of his family. Two Mothers’ Day posts: one with Victoria and their four children, Brooklyn (19), Romeo (15), Cruz (13) and Harper (6), and another one, a throwback of him and his mum. There’s a selfie of him and Brooklyn on a “lunch date”. While celebrating International Women’s Day, he posted two pictures, one of him and his mother dining at a restaurant and another of Victoria with the words: “So lucky to have strong and determined women in my home & work life leading the way.”
We just have one problem with the Beckhams: bring the children to South Africa, bruv.
“I’ve not brought the kids here,” he says shyly, as we end the interview, “but it would be nice to have them experience it all.”
If they need convincing, tell them downtown Joburg is like New York.
