The truth about David Beckham and the knighthood he craves: He’s struck up an unlikely friendship with a royal, and that Buckingham Palace appearance with Posh could be a sign of things to come, reveals KATIE HIND

Shoulders back, head held high and grinning, with just a twinkle of disbelief in his eyes, David Beckham looked like a man who had fulfilled all his boyhood dreams as he strode hand-in-hand with wife Victoria through the corridors of Buckingham Palace on Wednesday evening.

His athletic, tattooed, physique – seen more recently half-dressed in jokey Instagram clips posted by his wife – was resplendent in white tie as he joined King Charles and Queen Camilla for a banquet to mark the state visit of the Emir of Qatar, Sheik Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

The former England football captain was, say friends, ‘humbled’ by his invitation and, along with Victoria, ‘very happy’ to be there.

Little wonder. For any East London boy done good, it would be a ‘pinch me’ moment but for Beckham, an avid royalist since he was a schoolboy in Chingford, it really was the stuff of dreams.

And for someone who was widely believed to have ‘blown’ his chance of ever receiving a knighthood, it could be perceived as a creaking open of that particular door.

As a youngster, David would make an annual pilgrimage to Buckingham Palace with his beloved grandparents, Joseph and Peggy, to watch the Trooping the Colour.

In 2003, he was there to receive his OBE from the late Queen, and for a time it seemed as though a knighthood might be within his grasp.

Then, in February 2017, came the slew of leaked emails showing the former footballer had unleashed a barrage of expletives criticising the honours committee that had once again left him off the list for a coveted gong.

Usually charming and mild-mannered, Beckham referred to committee members as ‘unappreciative c***s’, and insisted he didn’t ‘care about being knighted’.

This all came after his use of a tax avoidance scheme hit the news. (The matter was resolved in 2021 and is no longer seen as a barrier to any honour.)

Officially, Beckham was on this week’s banquet guest list for his work with Qatar, the Arab country that hosted the World Cup in 2022.

It was a lucrative, multi-million pound role for which Beckham received heavy criticism from some people, who cited the state’s alleged human rights violations involving migrant workers.