Feature
Behind
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David Beckham’s golden boy image may have taken a battering in the past year, but this season he says he’s fighting back.
HIS talents on the football pitch, as well as his good looks and
marketability off it, have made England and Real Madrid star David Beckham one of the world’s most recognisable players. But 2004 will be remembered as the year the fairytale was tarnished, as his game disappointed and his marriage was questioned.
The European Championships in Portugal were supposed to provide him with the stage to prove he is one of the best players on the planet. Instead, Beckham was a tired figure in England’s midfield and he missed two crucial penalties on the way to the team’s eventual knock-out in the quarter finals.
Few England fans could believe what had happened to the man who had so often inspired as captain — but David maintains that nobody was fully aware of the personal torment he and his family had gone through over the previous 12 months.
Media intrusion has played havoc with his football, he says.
“Situations off the field always affect you. If you have pressure on you day in day out, whether it is good or bad, it comes to a point where you have to say enough is enough.
“This is my life. Unfortunately, it’s having four or five cars follow everywhere I go, every day, even to the park with my children. Invasion into my life is tough because I want them to enjoy their lives. People will say ‘why is he complaining?’ and I’m not really, but it is tough. It would be tough on any family.
“It reached an intolerable level last season. Being in Spain is a new environment and people are not used to me there. In Manchester I was able to go to the Trafford Centre and walk around with my family. But that’s not possible in Spain. I can’t walk out of my front door.”
Of course it was not meant to be like this.
David stunned the football world by leaving Manchester United, the club he’d been with since childhood, 16 months ago. Most saw the £25 million move to Spanish giants Real Madrid as Beckham’s chance to prove himself among superstars like Roberto Carlos, Luis Figo and
Ronaldo.
In the first few months, as Beckham kept scoring and the team kept winning, the midfielder’s signing was lauded as a great success both in Spain and the UK.
But then Madrid started to struggle and rumours surrounding David’s behaviour away from football began to circulate. Stories of an affair with his assistant Rebecca Loos made front pages across the world and, although he strongly denied the claims, he became news for all the wrong reasons. A holiday in Switzerland with wife Victoria was a media scrum.
Critics heaped on the pressure, hailing David’s lacklustre performances for Madrid as a sign that he wasn’t good enough to play for one of the world’s most famous clubs.
But he insists the constant hounding his family went through had dire consequences on his game. “It takes time and energy thinking about how you’re going to get to the supermarket without being photographed. That’s how the energy goes. You have to think and plan every time you leave the front door.
“I believe the season was made much tougher, on and off the pitch, because of certain situations. But I’m strong enough, I’m a strong enough person. I have to be because I’m a father and I have to look after two little boys and my wife. When I’m down they pick me up and when they’re down I pick them up.”
He continues, “But once I’m on that football pitch I blank everything out. When you’re having tough times on the pitch then occasionally you think about what is going on. But I never want to regret anything and I never will.”
You’d think there must be some regret that his debut season with Madrid, which promised so much, ended without a trophy. And England’s performance at Euro 2004 left people questioning whether Becks still deserved to be captain.
But then it is not the first time he has faced adversity, having been made a hate figure when he was red carded in England’s defeat to Argentina in the 1998 World Cup.
And this season David has vowed to win over the critics and re-establish his reputation as one of the world’s best midfielders.
“I have overcome hurdles in my career and in my life,” he says. “I will carry on doing that. It does seem to be one after another but I think I’m man enough and strong enough to come through. People were looking for me to quit as England captain but I’m not going to do it.
“I’m not going to lie down and take criticism. I’m a person who will fight back. People don’t
realise how strong I am. If they want to write me off I will keep coming back
until I have won.”
His family life has also been called into question but David is adamant that the marriage is as strong as ever and he is happy to continue playing in La Liga as long as he has Victoria and sons Brooklyn and Romeo with him.
“I had my family around more than people realised last season,” he explains. “My wife was there a lot of the time, apart from when Brooklyn was in school, and we’ve finally got him in a Spanish school now. One of the reasons he didn’t go before was because of the press attention.
“My teammate Zidane said his children were in school and for the first two months there were people filming his kids in the playground. I’ve said before I’m not prepared to put my children in that situation and if anything like that arose I’d have to take a long look at it.
“I’m very protective of my children. People say silly things like I do photo shoots with them. That’s nonsense. I’ve never done that and never will. As far as I’m concerned I will protect them as much as I can.”
David’s older son Brooklyn recently started football training and, according to David, the youngster has the same will to win as his father.
“He gets upset when he doesn’t score a goal or win a game. I’ve tried to explain to him that you can’t win everything,” smiles David. “He even gets upset when he doesn’t finish arcade games. I’ve told him you cannot win every time . . . maybe he can explain that to me later on!”
He continues, “Some situations I have been pushed into and some have been taken out of my hands, but I feel I can protect my children and I will do. This is my life, mine and my wife’s, and we either lie down and let everyone batter us with it or come out fighting. That’s what we’ll do as a family.”
David came back from his nightmare at World Cup ’98 by helping Manchester United win the treble of Premiership, FA Cup and Champions League a year later. Few will be surprised if he does the same with Real Madrid.
By Simon Johnson/Hayters Teamwork/
Planet Syndication
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