How will David Beckham be remembered?

When we cast a nostalgic eye a few years from now, how will Beckham be remembered?

Giuseppe Mezza, the Italian legend of the 1930s, was the first player to have personal sponsors (reportedly). He was also a fantastic striker and was a World Champion with Italy i.e. he could play a great game.

With the modern footballer increasingly becoming more than just a sportsperson, will Beckham be remembred as a one-footed cash cow or a decent winger with a fantastic right foot?

Furthermore, will this create a hazardous precedent? Will we see more players groomed as much (or more) for pageant as profession?
Whether we like it or not, Beckham has left an indelible mark on football. Will he be revered or reviled?

I think it depends on 'who remembers' him (same could be said for any player)

Manchester United fans will remember a player, who was 'committed' and 'loyal', fair to say from 1997-2001; top 5 Manchester United player and top 15 European??

Forget his 'celebrity' lifestyle .. just remember his football capabilities, despite the on going England problems, he loved to wear the three lions and give all for his country .. OK there have been games in which he 'shone' and games in which he was 'non exsistent' .. but his overall passion outweighs the not so good performances.

As a...

REDBLOOD!
A Legend!
An icon!
The greatest football megastar ever!

rai Mihawk wrote:I think it depends on 'who remembers' him (same could be said for any player)

Manchester United fans will remember a player, who was 'committed' and 'loyal', fair to say from 1997-2001; top 5 Manchester United player and top 15 European??

Forget his 'celebrity' lifestyle .. just remember his football capabilities, despite the on going England problems, he loved to wear the three lions and give all for his country .. OK there have been games in which he 'shone' and games in which he was 'non exsistent' .. but his overall passion outweighs the not so good performances.

I personally think Beckham is a so-so footballer but as you suggest he is a committed dude.

He is football's anomaly IMO. Ronaldinho and Ronaldo are world-renowned because of what they can do with the ball (certainly not their looks).

Beckham, IMO, is the first manufactured footballer. And that is not solely down to his looks either but it is to all who have sustained his myth.

In Italy there are many players who are better looking than he is...Maldini springs to mind. However, they have not had the same kind of marketing impact, notwitstanding the ads that Maldini has done.

One gets the feeling that is because they are serious footballers both in conduct and quality.

In that sense Beckham should be remembered as a moral hazard because he has garnered considerable success in football perhaps more on the basis of his marketing than his play.

I'll remember him as an attention seeker someone that liked the limelight more than football.

N18WNG wrote:As a...

REDBLOOD!
A Legend!
An icon!
The greatest football megastar ever!

I expected as much

The worlds best player in 99, won almost everything possible at club level.
And had a good international career aswell.

How will Becks be remembered ?

He won't be !!!!

the good lad was a living advertising board, nothing more

ManU fans will remember the RVN/Becks partnership

Asian girls will remember a celebrity whose posters graced their walls

neutral footballfans will completely forget about Becks within 5-10 years

---------------

personally

from time to time

I will try to remember his Rugby penalties

open a good bottle of red wine

light a cigar

and

smile

quietly

as a football icon, one of Englands greatest captains.

otto the humble German wrote:How will Becks be remembered ?

He won't be !!!!

the good lad was a living advertising board, nothing more

ManU fans will remember the RVN/Becks partnership

Asian girls will remember a celebrity whose posters graced their walls

neutral footballers will completely forget about Becks within 5-10 years

---------------

personally

from time to time

I will try to remember his Rugby penalties

open a good bottle of red wine

light a cigar

and

smile

quietly

he had his best seasons before ruud was around

He'll be remembered for that goal against Greece mostly.

He'll be remembered as a Pretty Boy

l r d wrote:The worlds best player in 99, won almost everything possible at club level.
And had a good international career aswell.

Rivaldo?

Two excellent matches against Greece and Argentina.

Jumped at a tackle against Brazil, fluffed a penalty against Portugal (Turkey during the qualifiers) and was so-so during the World Cup.

One of the greatest captains? Based on the record above...no? Robson, Moore?

Football icon? Yes. For all the right reasons? Debatable.

Despite some of his off pitch antics...Beckham was a fantastic footballer....So i will remember him for that..

Forza Italia!Forza Milan! wrote:

l r d wrote:The worlds best player in 99, won almost everything possible at club level.
And had a good international career aswell.

Rivaldo?

Two excellent matches against Greece and Argentina.

Jumped at a tackle against Brazil, fluffed a penalty against Portugal (Turkey during the qualifiers) and was so-so during the World Cup.

One of the greatest captains? Based on the record above...no? Robson, Moore?

Football icon? Yes. For all the right reasons? Debatable.

Rivaldo won it, but beckham should of won it. I didnt say he was a good captain, but he had a good international career. 80+ caps 20 or something goals.
in 99 he was amazing all the time. Rivaldo was good also, but becks was the worlds best that year.
People miss penalties in shoot outs you cant bring this up imo.

If anyone doesnt remember him as a great footballer this is surprising, because he was.

Almost every serious football fan I know coincides that Beckham was, is, and will probably be "the most overrated footballer in the history of the game".

A Spanish journalist recently wrote that Perez signing Beckham to play for Madrid just to sell T-shirts turned out to be a complete fiasco on the football pitch. George Best put it best when describing Beckham's "game".

Years from now people will look back to Beckham, and probably will think "twas the time when football went wrong".

He played some nice stuff with madrid for a few seasons, then lost the plot.
For man utd he was one of the best around, and you simply cannot deny that

l r d wrote:He played some nice stuff with madrid for a few seasons, then lost the plot.
For man utd he was one of the best around, and you simply cannot deny that

Yo LRD homeboy! In my opinion, Giggs had slightly more to do with Manchester United's success than Beckham. Every game I watched it was Giggs having a better game, but somehow Beckham was getting all the accolades.

Scholes had lots more to do in ManUnited's success than Beckham, but same as Giggs, he was getting little praise by the media. Andy Cole and Yorke were brilliant, and yet again they weren't in the spotlight as much as Beckham. Face it LRD, Becks was good for ManUnited, but there were much better players getting little to no recognition by comparison.

Forza Italia!Forza Milan! wrote:
Two excellent matches against Greece and Argentina.

England were s**t in that Greece match. Beckham ran for 90 mins, fair play to him, but everyone says he had a 'great' game because of the last-minute free-kick.

but he missed SIX free-kicks prior to that. A couple of those were great saves from the keeper but he kept on banging away at the direct free kick with no variation.

He got lucky in the last minute - Goldenballs is right. But it was an OK performance that shone out because of the mediocrity of the rest of the team.

ill NEVER forget seeing him live playing a huge part in taking germany apart in munich..he was simply amazing...

a nice guy who was a great footballer on his day...underated and overated by an equal number of people...

For F*cks sake, we're not talking about a player who never won anything before:

apart from the massed of trophies at Man United, he was a MAJOR part of the side who won the Treble in 1999 - in Europe alone his goals/crosses against the likes of Inter (2 crosses for the 2 goals at OT), Barca (free kick in group stages, cross for Scholes' goal, cross at the Camp Nou for Yorkes goal) Bayern (cross for Yorke again at Olympic stadium) were crucial

Only predictable bangwagon jumpers like Otto and Puro would not admit that in his prime Beckham was a phenomenon- he re invented the free kick (up until that point is was all about smashing the ball Roberto Carlos style), the way to cross a ball, the 50 yard crossfield pass, the marketing of footballers, the way to conduct yourself as a global icon (nobody can deny he has been a credit to the sport)...

There have been better players, but equally there have been a lot lot worse.

He is a legend of the game and proved that football is just as much about fabulous passing as it is about enigmatic dribbling.

[quote="dont panic!"]ill NEVER forget seeing him live playing a huge part in taking germany apart in munich..he was simply amazing...

a nice guy who was a great footballer on his day...underated and overated by an equal number of people...[/quote]

Amen to that

Beckhams life should be in two parts -


1996 - 2001 Quality and dedicated player
2001 - 2006 Over-hyped and to busy chasing fame.


All Posh's fault.

How will Beckham be remembered?

As the England captain with the most influential hair since Kevin Keegan.

Messiah wrote:He'll be remembered as a Pretty Boy

Like Ronaldinho will be remembered as an ugly buck toothed cunt.

He was a good footballer in his prime with only one good asset - his right foot.

But I'll remember him more for taking away the spotlight from the players that deserved it that bit more at the time - Rivaldo, Giggs, Keane, etc.

And selling razors.

One thing i like about Beckham is his enormous work rate, very few stars work as hard as he does.

borocooper wrote:

Messiah wrote:He'll be remembered as a Pretty Boy

Like Ronaldinho will be remembered as an ugly buck toothed cunt.

he is indeed ugly but has he said very charming

Not really Beckham's fault that he's probably the most handsome bloke ever to have played the thorougly macho game. Forza, you can swoon over Paolo "goggle-eyes" Maldini all you like... but even most Italian women, my wife included, talk about Beckham in the same breath as Brad Pitt or George Clooney (Maldini's more your Dirk Bogarde!). Anyway the point is, at one time he WAS a pretty damned excellent player too.

I fully agree with whoever it was that said that Beckham's career should be analysed in two phases: 1996-2001 and 2002-2006. In fact, I'd go further than that. His downward phase started when Alex Ferguson decided that he was the greatest crosser of a ball that the world had ever seen. Because, despite the immense contribution to United's 1999 treble win, his excellence was confined to a limited area of the field.

Personally, I think Glenn Hoddle got the best out of him for England. I still remember England dominating Italy and getting a 0-0 draw in Rome in '97 (Italy didn't manage a single shot on goal), and the despondence of the Italian commentators when Beckham had the ball ("Now it's in the bank!", i.e. this guy just doesn't know how to give the ball away). I also remember the awesome 60-yard chip against Wimbledon in that first season, and the incredible range and confidence of his passing. Wonderful vision too.

Never a flash player, but very sound technically and a hard worker. For that very reason, I personally couldn't give a monkey's about his lifestyle, Posh, Brooklyn, diamond rings, advertising, the parties at Beckingham Palace, and anything else that fills the tabloids.

I even thought he improved his communication skills when he became England captain. OK, he was never going to be on a Voltaire / Dr. Johnson level, but he did at last seem to make an effort to say something sensible (and interesting), which for most footballers is a feat in itself. Can't say he ever came over as an arrogant bloke either. You can take the boy out of the East End...

But (and it's a big "but"), it has too be said that Becks didn't really fulfill the potential he showed as a young'un. And I still think Alex Ferguson must take partial blame. When Glenn Hoddle was experimenting with a 3-5-2 formation, he often used Beckham at right midfield (with either MacManaman or Anderton outside him), and I always thought Becks looked a lot happier, saw more of the ball, saw more of the goal (!), and still found plenty of opportunities to show his crossing ability.