In a 2003 interview with BlackFilm, Chadha said that the title works on more than one level — which is why she was so adamant about keeping it for the international releases.
Apart from being a reference to pro footballer Beckham, who she describes as the "Michael Jordan of soccer in England," it's also a metaphor for achieving life goals.
"[It's a] great metaphor for a lot of us, especially girls. We can see our goal but instead of going straight there, we too have to twist and bend the rules sometimes to get what we want."
She elaborated in her "Burn It All Down" interview, saying, "... I never played soccer, but I understood the metaphor of it and for me it was a film about people breaking the rules, but actually you're bending the rules."
She continued, "So what I did my whole life was bend the rules, and there were expectations of how I should behave as girl, as an Indian girl, and then a woman. I kept trying to duck and dive that to be who I am."