JAN MOIR: Now we know the tawdry reality behind the facade of David Beckham  

• e-mail

The former England football captain and Manchester United midfielder (pictured) was adored by fans around the world 

Just one short week ago, David Beckham was one of the most celebrated people in the land. The former England football captain was adored, admired and so mightily venerated that he, among thousands of possible candidates among the great and the good, was chosen by the BBC as the star guest to mark the 75th anniversary of Desert Island Discs.

Eyebrows were raised at the choice of a sportsman who has never knowingly said anything approaching interesting.

However, dazzled as always by the veneer of his global stardom, the BBC duly snapped him up. Becks was then paraded as if he were some sacred offering to the ratings gods, a prize buffalo strapped across the front of their star-struck bandwagon.

And what did we get? Squeaky-voiced and perhaps with that familiar, glutinously earnest expression pasted across his handsome features, Beckham made the most of yet another broadcasting opportunity to humbly, ever so humbly, remind the millions of listeners about his charity work, his Unicef ambassadorship, his global status as a multi-occupational, twin-pronged, fully charged, tireless do-gooder.

'It's not for vanity,' he told host Kirsty Young, talking about his various charity projects. 'I want to get involved. It is important that I do this.'

Well it sure is, David.

Only now we know exactly why it is so important – and who benefits most from it in the end.

The tawdry reality behind the mirage of the blessed St David of the Globally Forsaken has now been exposed.

Beckham, who received an OBE from the Queen, is the ambassador of children's charity UNICEF

We now know that the real Beckham is a foul-mouthed, determined egotist who uses his work for charities as part of an increasingly desperate campaign to win a knighthood.

The Queen will be thrilled.

Although Beckham clearly likes to be thought of as a modest man whose halo is visible from outer space, he is now revealed to be a narcissistic schemer who uses the suffering of others to polish his own credentials and promote the one cause dearest to his heart – himself.

We learn that he once refused a request to use his own cash to fund his charity ('it's my f****** money'), demanded a £6,600 business class flight from another charity, then took a private jet instead. Also, that after being invited to appear as a guest on Graham Norton's BBC1 show – he allegedly demanded the producers pay thousands of pounds for a private jet to take him to watch his son play football afterwards.

This unholy alliance of football, showbiz venality, spiv publicity agents and a star desperate to mask the vaunting nature of his real intentions, sums up the age in the most authentic and depressing of ways. Just look at them all, ferrets in a gilded sack, all conspiring to fool the public to their mutual, respective advantages.

After being invited to appear as a guest on Graham Norton's BBC1 show – Beckham (pictured) allegedly demanded the producers pay thousands of pounds for a private jet

The leaked emails also reveal that Beckham backed the No Campaign in the Scottish referendum because he wanted to win favour with the Establishment, which says it all really. Bend it like Beckham? These days, only if you are talking about the truth.

Of course, Beckham's PR chief claims the emails are distorted and that nothing more explosive will come out – but how can he possibly know that?

Currently, Beckham is believed to be with his family in Los Angeles, where he responded to the crisis by shamelessly posting a video of himself reading a bedtime story to daughter Harper. Later, another private family moment was made available; a Virgin Mary-like snap of him cuddling his daughter in a restaurant. The message was clear. Family Man. Good Guy.

Even for part of a couple who have never shied away from using their kids as publicity magnets, this was a contemptible use of an innocent child as emotional ballast. And that is so sad, for I have always quite liked the Beckhams. Yes, they certainly have their ridiculous moments, but they seemed a happy bunch, raising a family with nice manners and good values. David and Victoria both came from humble beginnings and worked their way to the top, all credit to them.

In terms of raw footballing talent, the former Manchester United star is not supremely gifted like Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi. He got to the top by sheer hard graft, a love of the game and endless dedication.

Good for him – but somewhere along the way he became a slave to celebrity instead of sport, and that has been his undoing.

The collusion of his fame-hungry wife has not helped matters either. All the recent revelations suggest that somehow, somewhere, a grip on reality has been lost.

The leaked emails also reveal that Beckham backed the No Campaign in the Scottish referendum because he wanted to win favour with the Establishment

Of course, this is not the first time scandal has tackled Beckham.

Particularly, there was the rumoured affair with his assistant Rebecca Loos in 2004.

Should we mention the bizarre dependency on increasingly outlandish tattoos? Yet he was always redeemed when we watched him, perhaps, playing football with war orphans on a makeshift pitch in Africa. And the cameras captured that little tear slipping prettily from his caring eye.

But now we feel like fools – and won't think of him in such a favourable light ever again.

For the emails suggest that far from being a saint, he is just another grubby chancer who uses charity work as a pole- vault for his own status and enrichment. And what makes it worse is that so many others are complicit in this world of phonies – from the charity bosses themselves to the BBC.

Indeed, in 2015, the Beeb broadcast For The Love Of The Game, a bizarre documentary about Beckham which followed him playing football matches on all seven continents before rushing back in time for his own star-studded UNICEF fund-raising match at Old Trafford in Manchester.

During the 90-minute broadcast, there was no specific call for donations, it was just a brief skim into geopolitical problems, including malnutrition, refugees, poverty and natural disasters. Oh look, some starving kiddies, some people in rags in tents, melting polar ice caps – and on me head, son.

Bestriding it all like a charity colossus was the former England captain in a grandiose broadcast that must have cost more thousands than it ever raised. What was it all about? Burnishing the Beckham myth of course, and nothing else.

Perhaps it is wrong to be so uncharitable about the charitable but consider that Beckham last played top-flight football a decade ago. That means that all the money, deals, sponsorships and lucrative advertising contracts that he enjoys today are driven by his charity work, not his sportsmanship. Charity is the fuel in his celebrity rocket – it is what propels him onto the global stage, into television and the Desert Island Discs studio.

No wonder he is so relentless; orbiting the globe's troublespots like a goodwill sputnik, racking up the Brownie points for the knighthood that never comes. Tragically, all of this gives charity a bad name – and casts a pall of suspicion over other high-profile stars who try to do their bit.

Put a metal key into the sardine tin of celebrity charity and roll back the lid just a little and you will see the oily carcasses that lie stacked just beneath the surface, slippery creatures one and all.

In many ways it is sad that David Beckham, of all people, has been exposed in such a way. It makes one look differently at all aspects of his character and his life. Certainly, it is odd the way the Beckhams pimp out their children with an enthusiasm that makes tiger mums look like dopey kittens. They are a family who cannot do anything quietly, forever blowing their own trumpets – a brass-necked brass section without compare.

Yet under close examination, the whole family are Fifty Shades of Gormless: David and his squeaky bid for greatness, Posh and her mad frocks – the real miracle is that they have pulled the wool over so many eyes for so long.

David Beckham must be one of the most famous people on the planet. He has a lovely family life and riches beyond compare – but like many greedy celebrities, whatever they have is never enough.

Now he craves Establishment acceptance, the clunk of the sword on his tattooed shoulders.

He is the poor boy done good, the footie player who wants to be a knight and have waiters in his favourite sushi restaurant calling him 'Sir'. He wants the ennoblement of Lady Posh, who got her own OBE recently for her services to fashion – something that is almost as absurd as her new maxi-bellbottom trousers.

However, Beckham is right about one thing – the honours system is indeed a complete disgrace. Only not in the way that he thinks.

David Beckham could buy anything, but it seems that unlike a great number of knights we could mention, a knighthood is one of those things that his money cannot buy. He's been too loud, too needy, too obvious and too greedy. Arise Sir Becks?

Now it will never, ever happen. And he only has himself to blame.