Beckham - The biggest number 7 of them all

Growing up in India, football had to play second fiddle to cricket for a long time. Not by choice, but more by the sheer number of people who chose to ignore the beautiful game in favour of a sport in which India was an established, dominant team. Football was so far-fetched in their eyes that even till today we do not have a team which can be called formidable.

In all this confusion, a few chose to follow football. What lead the early shifters is not exactly crystal clear, but by closer to the end of the millennium, a single factor was emerging. David Beckham was a phenomenon that took most of the world by storm, and India didn’t have much of an escape planned. Football was suddenly fashionable, stylish, even mainstream. Hairstyles were changing just as fast as loyalties. The man in Manchester was just as big a hit in the guys’ department as he was in the girls’. The curling shot in to the top corner got many a guy to swoon, and the team he supported didn’t really matter for a change. Beckham was a hit across figurative borders.

He was the number 7 for both the Three Lions and the Red Devils, having taken the coveted number in the latter outfit after the legendary Eric Cantona threw in his towel. He captained the England team for six years, from 2000 to 2006. The midfielder was a massive figure in both the teams, extremely cohesive and increasingly integral to the system. He was a delight to have in the team, where his pin-point aerial balls added reach to the attack, and his aggressive attitude added teeth to their forays. Often caught in awkward positions, he was a victim of the spotlight he found himself in. He even married a pop star, Victoria Adams, one of the 5 Spice Girls who was nicknamed ‘Posh’ after her luxurious and spendthrift ways. His alleged affair with Rebecca Loos was a dark chapter in the footballer’s life back in 2004, but he emerged unscathed. His encounter with fellow OBE Sir Alex Ferguson left him needing stitches, and the need to move. Even the penalty miss against Turkey was nothing short of a screamer, but he rolled with the punches.

Life at Real Madrid was big, given his stardom that fit that particular constellation to the T. The Galacticos were legendary, and nobody but Beckham could have done justice to playing alongside Zinedine Zidane, Raul and Luis Figo. Raul did take away the number 7 shirt though, but number 23 was a bit of an inspired move and Michael Jordan was a happy man.

His moves to the MLS Galaxy were understandable, as the closer a star approaches burnout, the sooner he yearns for a retirement plan. The entire MLS footed his bill, as he was seen as an addition to the entire league, not just LA Galaxy. He clearly wanted to play in the bigger leagues, with two spells at AC Milan in the off season. His move to PSG was surprising, but his decision to donate his wages to charity wasn’t.

His peers have called it quits in the last few days. Ferguson and Scholes have both decided to go out on a high, and that may have appealed to the midfielder too. United, Real Madrid, AC Milan and now PSG; all of them have seen stars come and go, and it has become a habit of sorts, a bad habit. It is nothing short of sorrow that many fans will feel at the end of this season, when the biggest of them all hang their boots. David Beckham will forever be remembered as a classy midfielder who caught Sullivan off his line. The dead ball will always curl right past the keeper’s outstretched arm and the cross will always find the hitman up front. There aren’t many as big as the guy who wore number 7 for United, and Cristiano Ronaldo doesn’t even come close.