Good morning.

Hello everybody.

How are you?

[AUDIENCE APPLAUSE]

MARVIN CHOW: My name is Marvin Chow, and I'll be your host

this morning.

We are extremely excited to be welcoming international sports

sensation, philanthropist, and global icon David Beckham to

Google today.

[ENTHUSIASTIC APPLAUSE]

MARVIN CHOW: Thank you all for coming out.

A special hello to all of our friends from around the world

who are joining us by our YouTube live stream.

We are coming to you from Google's headquarters in

Mountain View, California.

I have to say, when David called us and asked us if he

could drop by today, excitement doesn't even begin

to describe how we felt.

He is one of the few truly global sports stars.

He is one of the most searched for athletes on Google, and

it's amazing how his fans have embraced him across Google

Search, Google+, and YouTube.

It's unbelievable.

But before I bring out the man himself, I want to welcome to

Google with this short video.

So let's take a quick look.

[VIDEO PLAYBACK]

FEMALE SPEAKER: Why are you special in the sports world?

DAVID BECKHAM: Well I won the book chart in soccer school.

[VARIOUS VOICES]

FEMALE SPEAKER: I love him so much.

MALE SPEAKER: No freakin' way!

SPORTS ANNOUNCER: David Beckham!

[SPEAKING ITALIAN]

DAVID BECKHAM: Center.

Center.

Center.

[END VIDEO PLAYBACK]

[AUDIENCE APPLAUSE]

MARVIN CHOW: Ladies and gentlemen, ladies and

gentlemen, please welcome Mr. David Beckham.

[AUDIENCE APPLAUSE AND WHISTLES]

MARVIN CHOW: Nice to see you, Sir.

How are you?

Wave.

DAVID BECKHAM: Morning.

MARVIN CHOW: Have a seat.

Have a seat.

Welcome.

Welcome to Google.

So let's kick off, no pun intended,

with a little soccer.

Or, for our international friends, football.

You know, you David, you really have had a global

soccer career.

I mean, you joined Manchester United at the young age of 17.

You won 9 major trophies in 11 years there.

Very impressive.

You then joined Real Madrid where you won another trophy,

and then since 2007, you've been here in the U.S. playing

for the LA Galaxy, where last year you

won yet another trophy.

And I think that puts you in a very rare group of trifecta

winners of three trophies on three different countries.

So congratulations.

DAVID BECKHAM: Thank you very much.

MARVIN CHOW: And then obviously, while preparing to

meet you last night, I read even more news last night.

The big news that you've decided to stay here in the

U.S. and continue to play for the U.S., the LA Galaxy.

Congratulations.

And I think we're excited that you chose Google as a place to

come talk to your fans and the rest of the

world about that news.

So why don't we start there?

Why don't you tell us a little bit about that decision to

stay with the Galaxy.

DAVID BECKHAM: Well, good morning, first of all.

I'm excited to be here.

To be part of this is exciting for me, and to be here with

you all and everyone else watching around the world,

it's exciting.

Google's one of the biggest companies in the world.

So I'm honored to be here today.

My decision, obviously, throughout my career has

always been about my family, about my career, about my

footballing career.

And I've been lucky to have played over the years with

some of the biggest clubs in the world, some of the best

players in the world.

And it's been exciting.

I've been lucky enough to have been successful in many

different clubs that I've played for.

And professionally, coming to the U.S. was something that I

was excited about.

It was a challenge.

It was a new challenge.

I played in Europe.

I'd won everything that I possibly could in Europe, and

I wanted a new challenge.

MARVIN CHOW: When you conquer Europe, it's

definitely the next--

DAVID BECKHAM: Like I said, I was very lucky in my career.

MARVIN CHOW: You are.

DAVID BECKHAM: So then, obviously, coming to America

was an exciting thing for me, and I've had

a great five years.

I met a lot of good people, a lot of great fans around the

world, traveled around America, played in different

parts of America, which I'd never played in before, and

it's been exciting.

So this championship at the end of this year was one of

the most satisfying in my career, I must admit.

To have been here for the time that I've been here, to reach

the goals that I'd reached off the field, with raising the

popularity of the game.

I'd reached those goals.

The only goal that I hadn't reached was a championship

with the Galaxy, which is the main reason why I came to

America and came to the Galaxy as a franchise.

So that was missing, but now it's not.

MARVIN CHOW: Congratulations.

DAVID BECKHAM: But obviously, with the new contract now, it

was a decision that I didn't take lightly because I

obviously had other offers from other

clubs around the world.

And at 36 years old you don't expect to

still get these offers.

So that was nice.

But it was all about where I felt the future was going for

the game here in the U.S., and also where my family was

happiest. And my family is happiest here at the moment.

We love living in LA.

We love living in America.

We've adapted the culture, we've adapted everything that

this country has, and we enjoy that.

So I'm going to continue to enjoy playing soccer here, and

my family will continue to enjoy it.

MARVIN CHOW: Well, speaking of, kind of

away from the Galaxy--

I saw when you came in 2007, you made a very public

statement that you wanted to help grow the game of soccer

in the U.S. Can you talk a little bit about how that's

going and some areas around growing the game here?

DAVID BECKHAM: Well that's the thing.

It's one of the reasons why I came to this country.

It's because, for me, soccer is the number one sport around

the world apart from America.

Don't get me wrong, the other sports, American football,

basketball, baseball, they're all great sports and have

great athletes in these sports.

But the number one game in the world is soccer.

So I want to get soccer to a different

level in this country.

And I think that we've done that in the last--

I've felt it change in the last couple of years.

And that's why I didn't want to walk away from it because I

felt the change.

And to walk away at this point would be disappointing because

I've been part of that growth, and I want to continue to be

part of that growth.

So it's an exciting time.

And it's great for the family as well, great for the family

to be here.

MARVIN CHOW: Well, speaking of the family, I think we've all

read how important family is to you.

So what role did Victoria and the kids have in decision, in

making this decision?

DAVID BECKHAM: I mean, they have the final answer.

It's as simple as that.

That sounded wrong.

No, obviously, when you're married, when you have

children, your priorities totally change.

10 years ago, when I was playing at Manchester United,

at Real Madrid--

obviously, we were married, but it was a lot easier for us

to make decisions based on our careers.

Whereas, we've got three amazing boys now and a little

girl that we have to look after, and

it's all about them.

So our priorities are about our children.

But like I said, in the question before, the growth of

the game is growing.

And to see when I first arrived there'd be 12 teams in

the league, now there's 19.

There are stadiums being built around America solely for

soccer, which is a big thing.

And that's the exiting part of why and one of the reasons why

I wanted to stay.

MARVIN CHOW: Yeah, well I think the impact of your

presence on the game has been very clear over

the last five years.

I think one of the other questions that I'm sure is on

a lot of people's minds with this decision is really, why

come to Google to tell the world and talk to your fans?

DAVID BECKHAM: Why not?

Why not?

MARVIN CHOW: So simple.

DAVID BECKHAM: Like I said, it's one of the biggest

companies in the world, and it reaches so

many millions of people.

And I felt that it's something that you always see when you

open your computer.

MARVIN CHOW: We like that.

DAVID BECKHAM: And something I was really excited about.

So like I said, I'm honored to be here with everyone, and

thanks for coming out because there's a lot of you.

Thank you.

[AUDIENCE APPLAUSE]

MARVIN CHOW: So in getting ready for this visit we saw

that you posted a video callout for questions on

YouTube, which is fantastic.

And I'd say from that video we've

collected tons of questions.

We've gone through them and we've curated them, and

obviously we'll go through some of those today.

I think, just also so you know, your Google following is

also very strong.

Obviously, you can see the people here in Charlie's, but

in addition to this group there are about 26 other

offices from around the world dialed in to watch this and

ask you questions as well.

And I think, if it weren't so late in some of the other

parts of the world, we'd have even more than that.

So congratulations on building a following here

at Google as well.

So let's dig in to some of the questions right away.

We'll start with football.

Tou Moo Yee from California wants to know, what is the

biggest difference between playing football in America

versus Europe?

DAVID BECKHAM: I mean, there's not a huge amount of

difference.

One of the biggest differences I'd say is just the travel.

It's literally the travel.

In Europe we only have to travel about an hour to a

game, or two hours at the most. Whereas, when we play

East Coast and we're playing in New York, it's a 5, 5 and

1/2 hour journey.

So that's a big difference but on the field, the level of

play has definitely gone up in the last three or four years.

And I think that it's at a stage now where this game is

starting to attract the interest of some big names and

big players in Europe.

And I think there has to be a certain change with some of

the things that goes on throughout the league.

But I think it's a league now, where European teams, big

European teams, are coming over for their pre-seasons and

they're playing against us.

So five years ago, the Galaxy had been heard of but I think

now, with the interest of the players that have come over,

such as Robbie Keane and obviously London Donovan as a

U.S. star, we've had that interest and it's exciting to

be part of.

MARVIN CHOW: Yeah, I think it must great to see the growth,

see the change year over