A global brand and a soccer celebrity phenomenon, David Beckham attracts a lot of media attention. Dig beneath the mountains of press about football, fashion and personal life though and it's clear that Becks also inspires some very creative thinking.

Have you come across some Becks oddities? People who've seen his face in a slice of toast or built a shrine to Beckham in their house? Click on Easy Edit and share your find.

So you thought the number 23 shirt Beckham wears for Real Madrid was just randomly assigned? Mathematician Marcus du Sautoy didn't. This number cruncher spotted that Becks' number 23 is a prime. He then noticed that all Real Madrid's key players have been given prime numbers.

Dr Carlton Brick, a politics and sociology lecturer at the University of Paisley, believes that Becks could well be the messiah for the celebrity age. Speaking at a conference on celebrity culture, he said: “It is not me that is saying Beckham is a pseudo Christ-like figure, but it is how he is often portrayed, and it is how he portrays himself.”

It's not just the academics at Paisley who're Becks obsessed, those fans with an intellectual bent can now study Beckham as part of a course on football culture at the University of Staffordshire.

The enterprising London Borough of Waltham Forest have made an interesting link between the famous footballer and ramblers by creating the Beckham Trail. Lovers of alpine poles and sturdy walking boots can now enjoy their hobby whilst taking in the broad vistas of such places as the maternity unit where he was born or Walthamstow Stadium where he once had a part-time job collecting glasses.


Heavens to merkin! Nobody does 'odd' like the Japanese and it seems that the Becks fangirls of Tokyo were so appreciative of his Mohican cut that it became very popular to emulate it. The 'Beckham Mohican' is not a style you'll see on these girls' heads though; it's the fashion to have it done in a place much further South.

So you want to bend it like Beckham do you?

According to Dr David James at Sheffield Hallam University, it's simply a matter of applying physics. All you need to do is master the Magnus Effect. If that means as much to you as the offside rule, then worry not, all will become clear. You need to make the ball spin because if it's spinning whilst travelling through the air, low air pressure will be created on the side of the ball which is spinning in the same direction as the air current and high pressure will be created on the ball's opposite side. This makes the ball move up, down or sideways in the air, depending on the type of spin applied. What does this mean? Well, a ball that 'bends' mid-flight is obviously harder to save.

Loreta Bilinskaite-Burke (and other members of her family) spent 3 months creating a 49 square foot tapestry of Beckham in a religious pose whilst a student at Central St Martins College of Art and Design. It was priced at a staggering £37,000.