When brand David Beckham ruptured his Achilles tendon at the weekend while playing for AC Milan, his presence at the FIFA 2010 World Cup was thrown into doubt. The British media heaved with the Beckham story: it was the opening item on the news bulletin; it hogged the front and back pages.
Even the local tabloid, The Times , had brand Beckham on its Tuesday front page. "Of course, it may be a blow for female footy fans, but you will find that he will be in and around the team anyway and he will still be very prominent," said Mark Lawton, a British football writer, perhaps anticipating millions of female South Africans collapsing in a collective faint at hearing the news.
For me a Beckhamless World Cup meant that the football community had been spared the bulk of the distractions that attend the Beckham circus: the wags (those annoying shopaholic footballers’ wives and girlfriends), the humdrum sound bites and the extracurricular activities that normally cling to the football spectacle.
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Beckham (34), by most accounts, is a limited footballer (take out the crosses and what you have is an average player) who has done extremely well because of his good looks, his media savvy and his 100% commitment on the football pitch.
Married to Victoria, the Posh Spice of Spice Girls' fame, he has played for three of the greatest teams in the world: Manchester United, Real Madrid and AC Milan.
With more than £125-million stashed in banks, he is the richest footballer in the world. When, in 2007, Beckham signed a contract with LA Galaxy, a US team, he became the first player to earn $250-million over five years.
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That is a lot of money for an individual, a figure that dwarfs the celebrated five-year R500-million deal the local PSL clinched with Absa.
And, after all, Beckham will come to South Africa. As an ambassador - whatever that means. Of course the ambassador role is one that suits him well. For a few years now, since the 2006 World Cup in fact, Beckham the footballer has been on the wane.
But Becks, as he is affectionately known, is no ordinary mortal, which explains why Italian coach Fabio Capello had to find ways to accommodate him.
In recent years Beckham has been included in the England team for cameo appearances. And his role for its 2010 team - he was certain to be picked - would have been from the substitute bench.
He is an effective footballer, to be sure, one of the best deadball specialists (to the uninitiated, deadballs are corners and freekicks), but his football worth, even at his peak, pales when compared with that of Wayne Rooney - perhaps the best English footballer of his generation.
But then David Robert Joseph Beckham is no average player; he is a multimillionaire, a member of the Order of the British Empire; a celebrity, a brand, an ambassador, and, most importantly, England's national treasure.
© Mail & Guardian 2010