I read with interest on another post, Beckham being referred to as a 'parasite'. I actually hold Beckham in high regard - less for his footballing ability - although clearly very talented at certain aspects of the game - but more for his passion, desire and pride in his shirt. With Beckham in your (England) side you would at least have passion and commitment - he won the game against Greece on his own. He is much criticised for his wealth and success off the pitch, but he deserved his shirt more than Rooney for example (who incidentally is paid more than Beckham was). Whether he overstayed his welcome with England is for debate, but his passion is not. If offered the chance to pull on the shirt again he would. Plenty of other 'professionals' wouldn't. He has never slagged off his critics either - which I admire. There are plenty of scumbags in the world with more money than Becks - and you can bet David will be cheering on England in June - whilst the rest of the 'stars' not selected will be down their local Bentley dealership.
100% agree he played with 100% pride,his football skills were as good as any,would put a ball on a sixpence for you. When DB played he gave his all,not like a lot of the past and present players.
Never had anything against him, and to be honest him and his wife certainly know how to market themselves. Whether you don't like him or her is your choice, but given the chance everyone would take the deals they was both offered.
Could never fault his commitment and dead ball skills- With Sven, I think he may have had too much influence. Does take the celebrity thing a bit too far, but never let it affect his football. The tats are a bit OTT, but each to their own.
As above...always conducted himself well, never in trouble (was he?) and not a bad lad on the pitch either!
What RODney said. However : 'I can only assume that the haters are jealous' I'm not jealous at all of Becks, just drives me nuts how good some folk think he is. What did Besty say ? - 'Becks can't head, tackle and wouldn't go by anyone'. Just like Wagstaff
You all probably know my opinion of the over hyped non event, but I'd like to point out.. Ummm no he didn't. He scored to give us a draw, on his home league pitch He probably doesn't know how to Don't fall for the hype. If challenged, anyone worth their salt would say exactly the same Not sure about being a parasite, but a media whore would be a better description. Took every set piece for a decade or more for his country and achieved very little. Missed a few crucial penalties. Got sent off against Argentina for being a petulant child. Got deliberately booked against Wales so that his Wife could attend a modelling assignment. Very professional Of all people, it's only the American's (God bless 'em) that actually saw him for what he was. I'm glad you all hold him in such high esteem though
Always wanted to play for England Came back when capello asked him to Always gave 100% on the pitch His performance against Greece was one of the all-time individual performances for England
Well didn't we all ? So he could raise his public profile and sell more crap would be my guess. I'm not jealous of the bloke. I just fail to understand the unending hype that has surrounded him, and continues to this day as I don't think it's justified. He has a clever PR marketing team and that's the bottom line but the worst sin is that he and his people were able to influence the England Management and the FA ! I don't consider him as one of the greats and I never will, not for Man U and certainly not for England. The fact that he ended up as a record caps holder for England says it all when the FA would give him 10 minutes at the end of pointless friendlies when we were 3-0 up just to give him more caps. 'Should we play the kids and give them a grounding in international football' they'd say ? 'No, we'll chuck on Beckham and make sure the teenagers buy another shirt' seemed to be the answer. WTF was all that about aside from the man being more famous (not more talented) than the country he was supposedly representing. It's just image over substance and fame over ability, or rather justified inclusion. The England team immediately before Beckham with Gazza, Shearer, Sherringham, Seaman, Pearce and co around Euro '96 were a hundred times better and achieved more than the ones with Golden Arse in.
David Beckham. Played in midfield for the finest midfields football saw of his era, and then there was England. Somewhere on you tube is a pass to Ronaldo that only a handful in football could ever achieve. His short passing game is over looked. His retention of the football with both feet was remarkable, his core technique was of a standard of Brazillian and Spanish superstars. That only can be achieved by relentless hard work and single minded determination few mortals who think they know football possess, not via having good looks and a beautiful wife. At the next world cup Englands players will again struggle to pass the ball simply and efficiently.
He was proud to wear the 3 Lions. He did everything asked of him on the pitch and off the pitch for the World Cup & Olympics bids. He only ever did 2 things wrong....kicked out in the Argentina match and got sent off and married one of the dumbest / most annoying people on the planet. I tip my hat to the man.
I'm not jealous of the bloke ... You sound green with envy. The England team immediately before Beckham with Gazza, Shearer ... Tsk that use of immediately should be the one that failed to quallify for a world cup and made the Norwegians look good. It's just image over substance and fame over ability, or rather justified inclusion ... Which got him runner up in the ballon d'or !!! Sixtyseconds not saying just telling
I'm curious, so again I ask the question, why is he any different to anyone else that's ever worn an England shirt ?? Any response from any player that wasn't along the lines of 'I'm proud to wear the shirt or represent my country' would be unthinkable, and if anyone was stupid enough to actually say 'I don't really care about playing for England' would never be picked again. Well that went really well didn't it..... We could have paraded previous bona fide World Cup winners as part of the bid, but of course we chose the celebrity option
Oh yeah, the ones that actually got us to a WC semi and a Euro semi as opposed to losing 1-0 to Northern Ireland with the great Beckham playing as Quarterback. That worked well didn't it ? Making it up as you go along by the sound of it
Ingerrlund didn't qualify for the World cup in 94 ... Not made up. Beckham did come second in the ballon d'or along with other only catwalk duffs like Ronaldo and Messi have ... Not made up. See other stars from this Isle have tried it abroad with Johnny Foreigner and not done very well. Beckham strutted his stuff at the bestest football clubs in the world in the toughest leagues except Germany ... Not made up. I can train several times a week in th evening, each morning, become obssessed with being better and rattle a blokes railings easily with a combination of punches ... But I will never be able to chip a ball into a box when under pressue first time every time. It is like Taylor with darts. I applaud sporting prowess.
Where did I say England qualified for the 1994 WC ? I was referring to Italia '90 Coming second sounds like the English way, we're good at it. Not many of our finest have done very well abroad from John Charles (one of the few exceptions) to the present day, but lets not even go there as to how many games Beckham kept the bench warm at Real, Milan, and PSG without contributing much aside from PR and shirt sales. His arrival at Madrid along with the other superstars like Roberto Carlos also coincided with their longest run without silverware in their entire history until (I believe) his final season there, and even then he was left out for a lot of that campaign.
"I'm curious, so again I ask the question, why is he any different to anyone else that's ever worn an England shirt ?? Any response from any player that wasn't along the lines of 'I'm proud to wear the shirt or represent my country' would be unthinkable, and if anyone was stupid enough to actually say 'I don't really care about playing for England' would never be picked again." Actions speak louder than words, I was in Blomfontein when Germany gave us a football lesson. Rooney didn't give a **** and blamed the fans.. Beckham beat Greece on his own and Sent me to Japan for 3 weeks for which I will be eternally grateful..
