The David Beckham Question

I’ve read a lot of articles recently, about David Beckham potentially leaving LA Galaxy. And I’ve felt they’ve skipped over a lot of important factors that are widely reported in the UK.

Firstly, David Beckham is not a hugely popular player in the UK. It’s a myth. He used to be, when he was a world-class player, but the average UK fan grew tired of his antics about five years ago. I get the feeling a lot of U.S. soccer fans are starting to feel the same way.

He used to be a truly world class player, in his time at Manchester United, but those days are long gone, and a lot of UK fans felt he was getting games with big clubs purely because he was a money-making, marketing machine. This caused a lot of resentment.

He was forced out of Manchester United by their hard line coach, Sir Alex Ferguson, on the basis that he was too big a star, had too big an ego, and wasn’t focused on football. And his career never really recovered from this stigma.

After a few unsuccessful years at Real Madrid, he was finally dropped from the England international squad, after about five years of underachievement. To explain, playing for England in mid-season international fixtures is seen by a lot of players as being more important than playing for a club in a league. It’s the ultimate honour.

Once Beckham got dropped from the England side, he rightly felt that his time in elite European football was probably at an end. Always one to chase the limelight, Beckham decided to forge a new career in America, with his Spice Girl wife, partly because he would be the “main man” again—something he hadn’t been in Europe since about 2001— and partly because he was more than likely eyeing retirement, and wanted to forge some sort of show biz career in LA.

Whatever the motive, Beckham felt his career in elite football was over. He didn’t think he would ever play for England again, so he made the jump.

The problem for LA Galaxy is the England coach that dropped him, and basically told him his England career was over, got sacked. And the new guy called him up again to play for England.

All of a sudden his England career isn’t over, and he has a shot at playing in the 2010 World Cup. There are conditions, though. In short, the England coach made it pretty darn clear that he would only consider Beckham for England if he was playing in a top European league, where the pace is much faster, and the quality generally higher.

Firstly, Becks only requested the loan to Milan to get out of his Galaxy contract. He doesn’t come out of this smelling like roses.  He treated the Galaxy shabbily, for his own means. And will hopefully be shunned in the LA celebrity circles that he hoped to join, when he made the move. The guy has always looked after number 1, and has always been ruthless about it.

My point is, claims that this is something to do with money, or his relationship with Galaxy, are completely false. Beckham and Galaxy were the perfect fit 12 months ago. He was out of the England squad, and loved playing in America, in a sort of semi-retirement role.

Times have changed though, and he has been given another shot at England, and playing in the World Cup. He is only moving because he knows he needs to be playing for Milan to have any shot at playing for England. And he’s honestly been given that opportunity by a very charitable new coaching regime.

I should also add that Beckham is currently on 107 caps (appearances) for England. He is only 15 appearances short of the all time England record. That’s a record that has stood for 20 years, covering 150 years of England international football. If he gets it, his legacy will be hugely enhanced. A guy with an ego the size of David Beckham will want that record. It would be like Barry Bonds just deciding to give up 10 home runs behind Hank Aaron's record.

Anyway, Beckham has screwed Galaxy. More than obvious. He’s used and abused his position there, and now wants out. But his reasons for leaving are all football related.