Au revoir

HOW fitting that the career of football royalty should end at the Parc des Princes after being handed the captain’s armband by teammates as they claimed the club’s first league title for 19 years. However, it is typical of the enigma that is David Beckham that when his eyes welled up during an emotional farewell, his waterworks were labelled the ‘Tears of a Clown’, writes Abu George.

Opinions about England’s most-capped outfield player and most successful footballers (as measured by trophies) are divisive. 

Teammates, coaches and touchline aficionados would complain about his poor tackling, unwillingness to head the ball and lack of pace. So how did he become so famous and win 10 league titles in his career?

On the pitch he could pass a ball. Short or long, straight or swerving, fast or slow – it did not matter to him.  He had uncanny accuracy and consistency making him lethal from set-pieces and while crossing from the right wing.

However, there have arguably been far more complete midfielders – Paul Scholes, Stevie Gerrard or Frank Lampard for starters. Chris Waddle, a former England international and TV pundit, recently remarked that Beckham would not even make it into his top 1,000 Premier League players!

Beckham won the FA Youth Cup in 1992 alongside Ryan Giggs, Gary Neville, Nicky Butt and Keith Gillsepie and made his debut for Manchester United’s senior team four months later in the League Cup at Brighton. Paul Scholes also made the step up to form a nucleus of ‘kids’ that took the league by storm.

What has singled Beckham out from other more talented players has been the manner in which he embraced the glitz and glamour of the fashion and music industries. Ironically, the reasons for Fergie selling Beckham to Real Madrid are what made Beckham a global icon. After Manchester United, every one of his transfers has been, in part, about raising the profile of the club or league that he is joining.

Real claimed to have made more money from shirt sales than Beckham cost them in transfer fees and wages. 

The MLS part-funded Beckham’s move to the US to join LA Galaxy. While this had a rocky start, there is now no denying that ‘Project Beckham’ was a success.  Personally, I believe that he should be applauded for his pioneering move, despite some no doubt claiming that, at the time, he had few other realistic options. 

Even the move to PSG was, from their perspective, to help promote their project globally and bring the attention that Beckham commands.

Brand Beckham makes him the richest footballer ever, although it is estimated that less than five per cent of his earnings now emanate from his match day income.  This earning capacity has made him a benchmark for a sportsman’s marketability.

Having started dating Victoria Adams (Posh Spice) in 1997 after meeting at a charity football match, they married in 1999. 

While he was neither the first or last international footballer to marry a pop star, he did so at a time coinciding with a media explosion, raising awareness and his profile. 

While there were rumours of affairs, he managed to keep the sordid details out of the limelight unlike Ashley Cole, Wayne Rooney or John Terry, thereby also avoiding any moral judgments.

If proof were required that Beckham has been accepted into the A-list crowd, Tom Cruise has hosted parties in his honour and come to watch him play while the Godparents to his four children include Elton John and Elizabeth Hurley.

Yet it would be unfair to only highlight the glamour. 

Beckham’s career has been synonymous with the ability of ‘Goldenballs’ himself to bounce back in the face of adversity. 

In 1998 he was lambasted at football stadia throughout England having been deemed responsible for single-handedly getting the national side eliminated from the World Cup thanks to a red card issued for kicking out at Argentina’s Diego Simeone.

The following season, thanks to some wonderful man-management from Alex Ferguson, saw Beckham help Manchester United to an unprecedented treble, including a famous last-gasp win over Bayern Munich to clinch the European Cup.

Redemption also came in the 2002 World Cup when he scored a penalty against Argentina to send England through to the next stage. Indeed, it was thanks to Beckham that England was present. On the brink of elimination Beckham curled in a trademark free-kick against Greece, played at Old Trafford. 

A broken bone in his foot kept the nation guessing about his presence in the squad, although the divisiveness caused by Beckham was also exemplified by the highlighting of an anagram of ‘metatarsal’ being ‘a tart’s lame’!

The following year saw a downturn in Old Trafford’s favourite Number 7’s relationship with the boss as he was struck above the eye by a flying boot, kicked by Ferguson following defeat against Arsenal in an FA Cup quarter-final.

While that season finished with another Premier League title, Fergie capitalised on Beckham’s global appeal by selling him to Real Madrid, with many arguing that his purchase was more about maximising his retail potential. 

Sir Alex (as he is now) also made it clear that the sale of Beckham was due to his diminished focus on the team, being distracted, as he saw it, by the fashion and music industries.

After several trophy-less seasons in Spain he announced he was leaving for a new venture in the US, leading to his club coach, Fabio Capello, sidelining him.  However, as results dropped away he was forced to call upon the England captain.

It was then that Beckham showed his true value on the pitch, helping a team of star individuals gel into a formidable unit and delivering the Bernabeu their first La Liga title since his arrival.

Ultimately, no other footballer in England can match his trophy cabinet and certainly none can match his bank balance! 

While that should certainly not, by any means, be something on which he is judged, he has done so despite facing unprecedented hostility and vitriolic abuse yet kept reinventing himself and succeeding.

Time will tell if he can continue to do that in a life after football.