David Beckham is set to retire from professional soccer, reported BBC Sport and the Daily Mail Sportsmail section.

The 38-year-old soccer star will play his last professional game for French team Paris Saint-German on May 26th, having helped them win their first Ligue 1 championship title since 1994 last Sunday. He joined the team in January, and notably donated his salary to a children's charity. 

"I'm thankful to PSG for giving me the opportunity to continue but I feel now is the right time to finish my career, playing at the highest level," Beckham said in a statement made Thursday.

"Nothing will ever completely replace playing the game I love. However, I feel like I'm starting a new adventure and I'm genuinely excited about what lies ahead.

"I'm fortunate to have been given many opportunities throughout my career and now I feel it's my time to give back."

With his most recent championship, Beckham enters the history books as the first Englishman to win league championship titles in four different countries. He holds titles with top European clubs Manchester United and Real Madrid, and won the last two Major League Soccer cups with the L.A. Galaxy.

The London-born Beckham made his Premier League debut at age 20 with a Manchester United team led by recently-retired manager Sir Alex Ferguson, and really made a name for himself the following year when he scored a goal from the halfway line of the field, almost 60 yards. In 1997, he was named the Young Player of the Year by England's Professional Footballers' Association.

With Manchester United, Beckham won six Premier League titles, two English Football Association cups, and the 1999 UEFA Champions League, the high tournament in European club football. He played with Real Madrid from 2003 to the championship winning season of 2007, before coming to America to play for the Galaxy.

Beckham was also a star for his country, winning 115 call-ups, the highest for a non-goalie. He was the English national team's captain from 2000 to 2006, leading the team in two World Cups and a European championship, and made his final appearance in a win over Bulgaria in 2009.

"To this day, one of my proudest achievements is captaining my country," Beckham's statement continued. "I'm honored to represent England both on and off the pitch... I want to thank all my team-mates, the great managers that I had the pleasure of learning from. I also want to thank the fans who have all supported me and given me the strength to succeed."

Over his career, Beckham had become a cultural phenomenon, even in notoriously soccer-averse America. He lent his name to the 2002 movie Bend It Like Beckham, starring Parminder Nagra and Keira Knightley as two young women involved in the sport. According to Forbes, he also tops their soccer rich list, with endorsement deals from Adidas and H&M.

But the soccer player bowed out still feeling humbled by his vast experience in the sport. "If you had told me as a young boy I would have played for and won trophies with my boyhood club Manchester United, proudly captained and played for my country over one hundred times and lined up for some of the biggest clubs in the world, I would have told you it was a fantasy," he said. "I'm fortunate to have realized those dreams."

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