| Goooooooool! |
23 June 2003
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Beckham Goes to Spain for £25 Million
It will be a sad soccer season at Old Trafford, Manchester, this year with David Beckham, the captain of the English team, playing for Spain's Real Madrid. For £25 million, Mr. Beckham is leaving what is arguably the most famous soccer team in the world to play on a team of superstars -- where he may well be eclipsed entirely. Still, it is right for him to go.
Playing captain of one's national side is a pretty fair indicator that one is at the top of the top in anything. But Mr. Beckham is nothing if not a competitor, and Real Madrid has assembled a team heavy of global talent: Zindane, Ronaldo, and Roberto Carlos. Often, he must compete full-tilt to prove he's the best in the country -- in Madrid, he may have to compete all out to make the starting 11. He simply has to try -- his personality allows no alternative.
As for the team he is leaving, some say that Manchester United took the money and ran away from the loyalties a player and a team should have. Those days are long gone, if indeed, they ever existed. Sadly, soccer is a business to the men in the boardroom, and Beckham at 28, healthy, with an ex-Spice Girl for a wife, is worth a great deal now. A knee injury in six years will bring his value down. Mr. Beckham is a commodity that will only lose value (note the perfect anonymity he suffered with Posh Spice during their American "publicity" tour and amplify it by six more continents).
Soccer is the world's sport, and its global swapping of player probably does more good for international friendship than a dozen high-level diplomatic visits. Mr. Beckham is just a link in that chain, but a vital one. Regrettably, United now have a pot of money for buy up talent, which can only bode ill for Chelsea, the team of choice at the Kensington Review.