From Football to Food: The Many Career Attempts of Brooklyn Beckham

Every philosopher has their big question. Socrates questioned whether ignorance was the true root of evil. Plato contemplated whether physical reality was inherently imperfect. Aristotle wanted to understand the root causes of change. Then there’s the question that plagues all modern-day philosophers: What does Brooklyn Beckham do?

From time to time, the press, tabloids, and netizens try to parse what the son of David and Victoria Beckham actually does for a living. What they don’t realise is that it’s much easier to ask What has he done? than What does he do? The trick is in the past tense. Here, we run you through some of his previous ventures.

Attempted Professional Athlete

Long before cameras and cookery, Brooklyn tried to follow in his father’s footsteps on the pitch. And they were big Adidas Predators to fill. During his professional career, David Beckham was considered one of the greatest midfielders of his generation, with 19 major trophies and an England captaincy under his belt.

Initially, Brooklyn showed some promise. Even if he was only… four. In 2004, he enrolled on Tottenham Hotspurs’ Football in the Community scheme for local children, and locals took note of his skills. “You can already see that Brooklyn is going to develop into a good player,” an onlooker told The Standard at the time. “The kids were only practising elementary football skills but Brooklyn shows lots of promise.”

Sadly, this promise did not continue into later life. He spent time in youth academies, including Arsenal’s U-18 team, but did not secure a scholarship or graduate to the professional ranks. He made no first-team appearances, nor did he secure any further contracts.

Amateur Photographer

At one point, photography was Brooklyn Beckham’s main passion — but in more of a “graphic design is my passion” way than a “Mario Testino” way. Nevertheless, that didn’t stop him from landing a Burberry Brit campaign at age 16, which he shot despite having no formal photography training.

In 2017, Brooklyn released his own photography book, What I See, which included a mix of images ranging from snapshots of wildlife to family moments. This book birthed the immortal meme that is Brooklyn Beckham’s image of an elephant shrouded in darkness, captioned: “So hard to photograph but incredible to see.”

He later enrolled at Parsons School of Design in New York for photography but left after one year, reportedly to be closer to his family and to focus on his photography internships. During one internship, a source told The Sun’s Bizarre column that Brooklyn was struggling with basic tasks. “Everyone knew Brooklyn’s work needed fine-tuning but no one knew his knowledge of the simplest tasks was so off,” the source said.

Aspiring Chef

Cooking has become one of Brooklyn’s most publicised projects and continues to be his main area of interest today. His passion for cooking was ignited by the COVID-19 lockdown, when he started experimenting in the kitchen and later launched an online show called Cookin’ With Brooklyn.

He appeared on the US Today Show as a culinary personality, where he prepared… a breakfast sandwich. In another cooking appearance on Vogue’s YouTube channel, he was ridiculed for struggling to open a gigantic wheel of cheese.

Of his cooking expertise, he has admitted: “Unfortunately I’ve never done, like, a cooking class, but I’m obsessed with watching MasterClass.”

Brooklyn continues to post cooking videos to his social channels, and they remain divisive. In December, he posted a recipe for beer-brined chicken that was “liked” by Victoria Beckham, allegedly violating a cease-and-desist letter he had issued to his parents that requested they not reach out to him publicly, on social media.

Hot Sauce Entrepreneur and Sake Brand Co-Founder

In late 2024, Brooklyn Beckham launched a hot sauce brand called Cloud23. It has been somewhat successful, gaining a place within the condiments aisle of upmarket grocery stores, like Whole Foods and Erewhon.

He described the product to CNBC, saying: “I designed every tiny little aspect of Cloud23. I designed the bottle from scratch. I named it. This is like my baby.”

Less publicised but still real is another food-related venture: Brooklyn’s canned sake brand, WESAKE, which is produced with a centuries-old Japanese brewery.

On this project he said, “I’ve always had a profound respect and intrigue for Japanese culture… I was introduced to sake through my travels, love of cooking and experimenting with new flavours.”

And the entrepreneurship doesn’t end there: reports indicate that Brooklyn is in the early stages of launching a burger restaurant called Beck’s Buns in Los Angeles, with Cloud23 sauces featured on the menu. However, it appears the eldest Beckham child is currently busy putting out fires of a more personal nature, so we may have to wait for Beck’s Buns to come to full fruition.