DAVID BECKHAM

Even in 1999, no one believed Manchester United’s historic treble season was the peak of his career. Twenty years (and multiple GQ covers) later, David Beckham has bought out his business partner and is building an empire to stand the test of time. For his ongoing projects in fashion, football and philanthropy, we commend the player who changed the game for everyone.

- Dylan Jones

IT WAS THE BABY OIL I REMEMBER MOST . We were in an old converted warehouse in Manchester, 2002, and David Beckham was almost naked. His fingernails were painted black, a fake leopardskin shawl was wrapped around his neck and his Dolce & Gabbana trunks were looking decidedly snug.

We were there to shoot him for the World Cup cover of British GQ. A small army of GQ image-mongers had been ferried up from London, while photographer David LaChapelle had flown in from Los Angeles to add some high-gloss camp to proceedings. Victoria and Brooklyn were at the shoot and I remember we had discussed in the office just how involved the former Spice Girl might get in the styling (making our Fashion Director, a nervous soul at the best of times, rather stressed). It wasn’t Victoria who interfered, though, it was David, who flicked his way through the rails of clothes as though he were a veteran buyer from Bloomingdale’s or Harrods, carefully picking out the things he wanted to wear.

He chose two outfits: one channelled David Bowie’s Thin White Duke, in a white Tom Ford suit and cream Lock & Co fedora; and in the other he appeared to invent a completely new stereotype, ‘butch hoolie’, in which LaChapelle photographed the England football star pumping iron while wearing only a pair of tight denim cutoffs and a thin layer of sweat – which is where the baby oil came in, poured over his body like liquid honey.

‘My style? It’s from another planet,’ he told his interlocutor that day, David Furnish.