Quite possibly one of the most famous footballers ever to set foot on the pitch David Robert Joseph Beckham was born on May 2, 1975 in Leystone, London, England. David Beckham has had a career that can only be compared to the likes of a rock star or actor, but he is nothing more than very talented footballer from London.
With his every move watched and every action documented and criticized, Beckham has never had it easy playing for Manchester United, Real Madrid or his country of England. An unparallel technical ability, world famous bending free-kicks and an uncanny ability to make any team he plays for much better, Beckham is with out a doubt one of the best footballers the English national team has ever had in the midfield. Beckham’s international football career with England began back in September of 1996 in a World Cup qualifying match against Moldova.
Playing in all of the qualifying matches for England leading up to the 1998 World Cup in France, Beckham was getting more experienced with every appearance. England’s manager at the time, Glenn Hoddle, thought Beckham’s head was not in the right place, so he made him ride the bench for the first two matches. When he finally got his shot in game three against Colombia, Beckham made it worth his while scoring on one of his patent free-kicks from a distance.
This was his first goal on the English squad which resulted in a victory for England 2-0. Controversy began to surround Beckham in the next round of play for against Argentina when he was sent off with a red card for an altercation with Argentina player Diego Simeone. The match eventually ended in a draw and Argentina won on penalties which eliminated England, but Simeone admitted later that he was purposely trying to make the situation worse to convince the referee to get Beckham sent off. After the elimination of the English team, Beckham took most of the blame for the loss and England’s early exit from the World Cup. It was nothing short of a nightmare for the young footballer; Beckham was hammered by the press, fans and football critics. The abuse was very hard for Beckham from a dartboard with his face on it being printed in an English newspaper to a dummy made to look like Beckham being hung from a rope outside a London pub and worst of all death threats. He went from rising superstar to the most hated football player in his own country.
The next international competition for England was the Euro championship in 2000. The tournament ended for England when they were eliminated by Portugal 3-2 and the English fans showed their distaste for Beckham even though he had two assists in the match. Beckham had enough and responded with flipping off the crowd in anger. The heckling was getting so bad for Beckham that even the newspaper were advising fans to stop because it had just gone too far. Shortly thereafter the Euro championship, Kevin Keegan the English manager at the time stepped down and resigned as coach of England. His short lived replacement was Peter Taylor who gave Beckham the captaincy of the team which was continued when Sven-Goran Eriksson arrived as the new manager. It was still tough times for Beckham, but under Eriksson he was slowly winning back the English fans leading up to the 2002 World Cup. Beckham officially arrived back into the spotlight and in good graces with English fans when they faced off against Greece in a match that England had to win or draw to qualify for the up coming World Cup.
The score was 2-1 and most of the squad was not playing up to par until Beckham sparked the English squad with late game heroics, scoring a free-kick after teammate Teddy Sheringham had gotten fouled just outside the penalty area. The free-kick was classic Beckham, bent to perfection and saved England chances at the World Cup. This goal put Beckham back on the map and in the hearts and minds of all England supporters.
In the 2002 World Cup Beckham was not in top form because of an injury he had sustained earlier in the year, but there was nothing that was going to stop him from playing. Ironically enough, Beckham played a major part in Argentina’s failure to qualify in the knockout round. Beckham had a fantastic goal off a penalty against Argentina ending their run in the tournament. Unfortunately, England loss to Brazil in the quarter-final match, Brazil went on to win the World Cup in 2002. Four years later in 2006, England got another shot at the World Cup in Germany. Beckham performance in this Cup was highly criticized with the midfielder not playing in top form in some critics eyes.
Beckham had minimal contributions to his team, but he did assist Peter Crouch and Steven Gerrard’s goals against Trinidad and Tobago to win Man of the Match honors. In the second round Beckham became sick before the game, but still managed to score on a free-kick to win the match against Ecuador and make history by being the only player in England’s history to score in three World Cups. The English eventually lost to Portugal in the quarter-final, Beckham was taken out due to injury which left him very emotional as this may have been his last World Cup. Only 24 hours after the disappointing loss in the World Cup, Beckham made an announcement that he was stepping down as captain of the English squad. Shortly thereafter, new manager for England Steve McClaren dropped Beckham from the team completely to make way for talented youth. Almost a year later, in May of 2007, Steve McClaren recalled Beckham back to the national team which revitalized a suffering England team. Beckham went on to make brilliant performances in games against Brazil and Estonia passing out three assists in the two matches and giving England what it was desperately missing, one of the best midfielders to play the game, David Beckham.
To Watch Live Football Online:
- Watch Live Football
- Watch Live Football
- Watch Live Football