The Beckhams are always on a yacht in the summer, it’s basically a tradition. This year their yacht time was delayed a bit, because of the World Cup, of course, but they will eventually find their way onto the yacht and now here they are, floating in the waters near Ibiza. Victoria’s under a ballcap protecting her face from the sun while David’s lounging back doing some reading. The book is Taylor Jenkins Reid’s One True Loves, exactly the kind of novel you pack for a beach or a yacht holiday.

Going back to the World Cup though, David was one of the most visible ex-footballers during the tournament and probably especially critical for this World Cup taking place in Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Because he is more known on this side of the Atlantic than probably almost every other footballer besides Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. Which is why his status as an ambassador for the sport and the event is so lucrative. There estimates that he made as much as $25 million during the tournament – and you couldn’t miss him. It’s not just that he was at the matches, he was also all over the commercials. In Canada, the Lays commercial, with him and Steve Carrell and Messi, among others, was played over and over again.

For David though, of course the money from doing commercials is nice, but it’s not everything. The brand deals are also about visibility, and factor into a whole business network that benefits his team, Inter Miami. Because he himself is a brand, a critical figure for the team itself, its investors and the advertisers who come on board to support it and this conversation is much more complicated than most of the topline conversations about Beckham and his entrepreneurialism.

This tweet, posted yesterday, provides a good outline of how he’s managed his financial interests over the last nearly two decades, from the time when he was still playing in the MLS. And how shrewdly he exploited his own contract.

The value that he’s built into Inter Miami and his equity in the team is worth much more than whatever paycheque he’s getting from selling chips and other products during the World Cup. So it’s not just that he needed a couple million dollars from those advertisements, it goes into the whole package of him being Mr Football International and Team Owner. With a family brand that also includes Victoria’s label, now much more successful and viable, and possibly his daughter’s soon-to-launch beauty brand?

Harper Seven Beckham's skincare collection, originally called HIKU and now renamed Harlo by Harper was “inspired” by Korean skincare and will be aimed at Gen Z and Alpha. What’s interesting about this is that Harper has no social media presence of her own – at least not yet. And this is unusual because, of course, followers and likes etc has become a standard measurement for potential and amplification.

It may have been strategic all this time for the Beckhams to keep Harper off socials until she was older and then formally introduce her on her own accounts once there’s an actual business to support. But at least as of now, the only access to her on social media is through her parents which is, arguably, the way it should be. She’s 15 years old. So it’ll be interesting to see how that changes once they’re ready to launch the product line.

David and Victoria Beckham on their luxury yacht in Ibiza, July 22, 2026

Photo credits: Backgrid

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