BASKETBALL legend Michael Jordan wore 23 for the Chicago Bulls.
His dad was also murdered on July 23, 1993, during a botched robbery.
Real's choice of number is a coup for agency SFX who handle both Jordan and Becks' affairs.

WILLIAM Shakespeare was born and died on April 23.
His first folio of plays came in 1623.
Wife Anne died in 1623.

US catchphrase "23, skidoo" is thought to have come from A Tale of Two Cities by Dickens.
In it a woman counts guillotine victims.
As she says "23" the hero Sydney Carton is beheaded in the last act.

The terrorist attacks on America on 11 September 2001 have been held up as one of the most portentous examples of the disturbing power of 23.
The figures in the date (9+11+2+0+0+1) add up to 23.

Manchester City have not assigned the squad number 23 to any player since 2003 after the last incumbent,
Marc Vivien Foe, collapsed and died while playing for the Cameroon on 26 June 2003.

The most famous and most quoted of the Psalms is number 23:
"The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me beside the still waters."

In the science fantasy saga, Star Wars Episode IV:
A New Hope, Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Chewbacca
sneak into detention block AA23 to rescue Princess Leia.
The rescue attempt is botched and Leia escapes only by dodging
Stormtroopers' laserfire. A police robot called 23 is included
in Star Wars director George Lucas' first film, THX 1138.

The Knights Templar, the order of soldier monks who eventually fell
foul of the Vatican and have been the subject of conspiracy theories
about the Holy Grail, had 23 Grand Masters.

Kurt Cobain, the god of grunge, was born in 1967 and died in 1994 - 1+9+6+7= 23, 1+9+9+4 = 23.

The Hiroshima bomb was dropped at 8.15am - 8+15= 23.

Charles Darwin's Origin of Species was published in 1859 - 1+8+5+9 = 23.