David Beckham Announces Retirement

Them's the Breaks
A few months before the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea, Beckham was injured during a Champions League match against Deportivo La Coruña, breaking the second metatarsal bone in his left foot. Suddenly all England fans became medical experts, and the Sun newspaper even asked people to place their hands on a front page depicting his injury, in a spiritual attempt to heal him. It must have worked, as he battled back to fitness and scored the winner in a group game against Argentina — the team he'd been sent off against at the previous World Cup. Sadly for Beckham and England, they would be eliminated in the quarterfinals against eventual champion Brazil.

• David Beckham's England Career Is Over