Beckham 'humbled' to receive lifetime achievement award

• David Beckham: has won 115 caps playing for England

Beckham, now based in Los Angeles, will receive the trophy at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year event. He previously won the main sports personality prize back in 2001.

The 35-year-old former Manchester United player will pick up the honour in front of his wife Victoria, and sons Brooklyn, 11, Romeo, eight, and Cruz, five.

Other members of the family attending the event will be his parents Ted and Sandra, as well as sisters Joanne and Lynne.

Beckham is England's most capped outfield player and won six Premier League titles and the Champions League crown with Manchester United.

He also won the Spanish league with Real Madrid after a 25 million move from Manchester United before joining LA Galaxy. He also spent two loan spells at AC Milan.

The lifetime honour is one of several awards which will be presented during the BBC Sports Personality of the Year show, which starts at 7pm.

"David's record on and off the pitch has been remarkable," BBC Sports Personality of the Year editor Carl Doran said.

"It's a fitting reward for an outstanding career as a player and for his tireless work as an ambassador for British sport.

"He has also been a tremendous role model and I'm sure he'll get an amazing reaction from the public in Birmingham."

Previous winners of the lifetime achievement award include Sir Bobby Charlton, Sir Bobby Robson, Bjorn Borg, Pele, Sir Ian Botham, Martina Navratilova, George Best and Sir Alex Ferguson. Last year it was won by Spanish golfing legend Seve Ballesteros.

Friends of Beckham were reported as saying he was "very humbled" by the decision to give him the lifetime achievement award.

Beckham began his career with the England team in September 1996 against Moldova. His latest, and 115th, cap came against Belarus in October 2009. He also captained England 59 times in that period.

He was expected to be selected for the World Cup tournament in South Africa earlier this year.

But Beckham, originally from east London, tore his Achilles tendon while on loan from LA Galaxy at AC Milan in March.

Following the injury, he was ruled out of what would have been his fourth World Cup.

Beckham lives in Los Angeles with his wife and children, but regularly returns to Britain, where the rest of his family live.

He was a key member of the England 2018 World Cup bid, joined by Prime Minister David Cameron and Prince William in their efforts to bring the tournament to the country. But their efforts came to nothing and they lost out to Russia in the vote earlier in December.