A must for football fans: Beckham film gets under your skin and straight into your heart

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David Beckham (48)? Sure, I know who that is. A very talented footballer who became a poster boy in England at a young age. Who has experienced ups and downs. Posh from the Spice Girls got married and made a lot of money as a footballer, model and marketing product.

A blond handsome boy with a sense of luxury, who was made the scapegoat for England’s elimination from the 1998 World Cup because he was shown the red card against Argentina and subsequently endured an inordinate amount of malice and hatred, but in the end somehow always managed to come out of the crisis strengthened.

A work of art just like his free kicks

I recently watched the four-part Netflix documentary “Beckham” and have to say, I didn’t actually know who Beckham was. And now I’m amazed. I admit to rooting for the South Americans in that memorable Round of 16 between England and Argentina in 1998 and noting sympathetically the expulsion scene against Beckham.

I was never a big Beckham fan, but now, after seeing the documentary, I am full of compassion and admiration. I’m aware that a film like this is a marketing project, peppered with product placements, and the goal is obviously to show the main character in the best possible light at the end. Otherwise this film wouldn’t have existed. And somehow, a masterpiece like this has to be paid for, with all the important players acting as witnesses and with beautiful recordings from early childhood. Netflix is ​​said to have paid £16 million for the rights alone. It was a beautiful piece of contemporary art – a work of art like Beckham’s crosses and free-kicks.

Falling into the deepest vale of tears

All the relationship stories the film explores, which always teeter on the edge of kitsch, luxury and bling, don’t really interest me. I dismiss them as luxury problems of millionaires. I don’t like Beckham in a bling outfit. I am all the more moved by the story of the celebrated young star who has and gets everything a young man could wish for – and then, because of a perceived triviality, falls into the deepest vale of tears and becomes the hated enemy of the nation. For those who sink so low that they threaten to sink into depression, the way out of the crisis is like a miracle and is only due to a remarkable capacity for suffering.

What impressed me most about Beckham, and what brought me to tears at the end of the series, is the man’s love for football. Although the stadium stage soon became too small for him and he wanted to break out and become more than just a footballer, he could never do without this sport, which gives him room to breathe.

As he left the place crying

While he was presented as a new player at Real Madrid, where he moved from Manchester United in 2003, he said the following sentences at the press conference that looked deep into his footballer’s soul: “I have always loved football. Of course I love my family too, but football is everything to me.”

Even more impressive is the scene in episode four when Beckham’s career comes to an end, he plays his last match in the PSG uniform, is substituted ten minutes before the end of the match so he can make his exit podium and completely loses emotional control . . By then you’ll want to hug him and thank him for his love for this sport. Then you understand what passion means.

He postponed the end of his playing career for as long as physically possible. But in the days after the games, when all he could do was roll out of bed in pain, he made amends. What did he do when he gave up his career with a heavy heart at the age of 38? Hours later he continued. He has founded a new football club in the US, where he is co-owner, is enthusiastic about it, helps shape it and would prefer to still play there today.

What was left out of the film

In Miami, as a boss, he can further realize his football dream and he has infected none other than the Argentine world champion Lionel Messi with his euphoria. Against competition from the Saudi sheikhs, he managed to lure him to the US in the summer. A beautiful coup. The two probably have a lot in common.

Anyone who loves this sport should watch this movie. It impressively shows how good Beckham actually was as a footballer, how brilliantly he kicked crosses and free kicks with his divine right foot, and what a great player he should be classified as in football history.

But he does not show – and this is a major omission – that Beckham, as an official ambassador and advertising medium, was bought by the sheikhs for 150 million dollars for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. For all his love for football, money was always very important to Beckham. This ambivalence is part of him, what defines him. I will remember him best as a brilliant footballer.

Source : Blick