David Beckham says he ‘never thought’ he would be back posing in his underwear

David Beckham has admitted he “wasn’t looking forward” to posing in his underwear for his new Boss campaign after hanging up his pants a decade ago.

Speaking at MIP London on Tuesday, the former England and Manchester United footballer said he trained for 14 weeks ahead of shooting for the Boss One campaign which went live last month.

After starring in numerous underwear ads throughout this career, the 49-year-old said he had told his team he would not strip down again, but was convinced after signing a new partnership with the German fashion house.

Beckham said: “Getting back into my underwear at 50 years old in front of the world was quite a thing that I actually wasn’t looking forward to.

“And I actually hung my pants up 10 years ago, my last commercial in my underwear, and never thought I would do it again. I actually told my team, I’m not going back into my underwear.

“Then we signed the Boss deal, and the Boss guys turned around to me and said, what about an underwear campaign? I was under quite a bit of pressure at that point, so I agreed to it.”

The ex-right winger signed a long-term ambassadorship deal with the German fashion house in May 2024, making an appearance in August for the autumn/winter 2024 campaign, followed by his latest campaign for Boss One which launched in January.

Beckham added: “I trained for it for 14 weeks and as someone that loves food and wine, I cut that out for 14 weeks and just went for it.”

He said one of the “most embarrassing things” about doing the campaign was that his mother-in-law told him she had examined the photos with her friends.

“She was like ‘I was sat with my friends and we were zooming in and do you know if you zoom in you can see everything’… Well just don’t zoom in”, Beckham added.

The former football star remains in the game as a part-owner of Inter Miami CF alongside his business ventures including being the co-founder of Studio 99, the production company behind the Netflix series Beckham.

The four-part documentary series about Beckham’s life and professional career scored him an Emmy in 2024 for outstanding documentary or non-fiction series.

He has since convinced his wife, Victoria, to do her own documentary series about her life and fashion business.

Beckham said: “It took a minute to try and get her to agree to it. It wasn’t something that was easy. I think I’m the only person to convince her, and I did, eventually.

“My wife is one of the hardest working women that I know and she’s not just been doing it for the last five years.

“She’s been doing her business for the last 20 years. The fashion brand has been around for 20 years. Only turned profitable a few years ago.

“It’s going to see her in a different light.”

Netflix announced last August that the series had started production.