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Beckham Announces Retirement From Soccer Beckham Announces Retirement From Soccer
(about 2 hours later)
David Beckham, the English midfielder who combined devastating free kicks, dashing good looks and savvy marketing to become one of the most recognizable athletes in the world, announced Thursday that he would retire from soccer at season’s end. When David Beckham broke a bone in his left foot before the 2002 World Cup, Tony Blair, then the British Prime Minister, interrupted a cabinet meeting to express his concern about England’s suddenly uncertain chances. Tabloid newspapers ran photos of Beckham’s injured foot on Page 1 and asked readers to lay their hands on the picture in an attempt at mass civic healing.
Beckham, 38, has played his final season for Paris St.-Germain, adding a French league championship to the ones he won in England with Manchester United, in Spain with Real Madrid and in the United States with the Los Angeles Galaxy. His achievements on the field and smart branding by his camp and the shoe company Adidas made him an icon of his generation and a household name everywhere the game is played. On Thursday, Beckham retired from soccer at 38, never the best player in the world but unsurpassed in his era as a cultural phenomenon.
“If you had told me as a young boy I would have played for and won trophies with my boyhood club Manchester United, proudly captained and played for my country over one hundred times and lined up for some of the biggest clubs in the world, I would have told you it was a fantasy,” Beckham said in a statement. “I’m fortunate to have realized those dreams.” The sport has long had global stars, but none whose careers emerged so fortuitously at the nexus of technology, reality television and celebrity culture. Beckham was the athlete with the most crossover appeal at the moment when everyone could watch together, online or via satellite.
Over the course of his career, Beckham became as much a pop culture figure as a soccer player. He married a Spice Girl, the former Victoria Adams, and they own an Italian villa in Beverly Hills. His face adorns billboards in dozens of countries. According to Forbes, he was the world’s highest-paid soccer player in 2012 at $50.6 million, including his endorsements, which also made him the eighth highest paid athlete in the world. His signature free kick inspired a 2002 movie called “Bend It Like Beckham.” A film exhibit at Britain’s National Portrait Gallery in 2004 consisted entirely of him taking a nap. Beckham was not merely an athlete; he was an international brand that smartly fused a handsomeness that bordered on beauty with athleticism, marketing savvy and an eager embrace of the role of pop idol.
His country not only hailed his soccer skill but also his contributions in helping London land the 2012 Olympics. He employed his considerable star power in the successful Olympic bid. He was as likely to appear in Vogue as in Sports Illustrated. He was as popular appearing in underwear advertisements as in a soccer uniform. He was appreciated by working-class fans and was a gay icon. His wife was a member of the Spice Girls and his precise passes and curling free kicks inspired a film, “Bend It Like Beckham,” serving as a metaphor for triumph over social restriction.
Beckham’s soccer glory years came at Manchester United, where he won six Premier League titles, two F.A. Cups and the 1999 Champions League title under Manager Alex Ferguson, who also retired this month. “David Beckham is soccer plus sex; those are the only two things that sell in the world, aren’t they?” said Stefan Szymanski, a British co-author of the book “Soccernomics” and a professor of sports management at the University of Michigan.
One of his Manchester United teammates, Gary Neville, tried to sum up Beckham’s impact. “What Beckham sold was athleticism or soccer to straight men and sex to women and gay men,” Szymanski said. “He did that rather spectacularly well. I’m guessing he’s the prettiest player the game has ever had. He’s the Marilyn Monroe of soccer. Everybody would want to be next to David Beckham.”
“He played in the greatest midfield I’ve ever played with: David, Ryan Giggs, Roy Keane and Paul Scholes,” Neville said to The Guardian. “David was a crosser of the ball, a passer of the ball. He had incredible stamina and energy. He was a joy to play with. Despite his looks and talent and adulation, though, Beckham was not a prima donna on the field. He was considered to have given everything for his club teams and the England national team, winning titles with some of the world’s most popular clubs, Manchester United of England’s Premier League, Real Madrid of Spain’s La Liga, and Paris St.-Germain of France’s Ligue 1.
“And when you think back on the way football has changed over the last 22 years, he has probably been the most influential player in that time out of England in terms of transforming football. His name and reputation alone brought newfound international respect for professional soccer in the United States during his six seasons and two championships with the Los Angeles Galaxy of Major League Soccer.
“Every clothing garment he wore, every hairstyle, was followed — not just in football, but out of football.” And, in the era of the Internet and satellite television, Beckham’s career proved hugely influential in the swelling interest of European soccer in Asia and elsewhere around the globe.
When Beckham left Manchester United, at the height of his career, he joined Real Madrid in the summer of 2003 in a blockbuster transfer worth $45 million. “I don’t think it’s unfair to say he put M.L.S. on the map,” said Bruce Arena, who coached Beckham to two league titles with the Galaxy. “And he’s certainly one of the chief people responsible for worldwide attention of the game. He’s one of the most competitive people I ever coached. As he got to the end of his career, he didn’t have the legs he wanted to have, but he had a bigger heart than anyone on the field.”
His next move was to the Galaxy, in 2007, where his mere presence lifted the profile of then-struggling Major League Soccer. And while he angered fans with two off-season loans to A.C. Milan in Italy, he helped deliver league championships in 2011 and 2012 before leaving after last season. Beckham, who made 115 appearances with the English national team, did have his less felicitous moments. Infamously, he committed an impetuous foul that got him ejected from a 1998 World Cup match against Argentina. And Landon Donovan, the American star and former teammate with the Galaxy, criticized Beckham’s early commitment to M.L.S. in a book called “The Beckham Experiment” by Grant Wahl, a senior writer at Sports Illustrated.
Beckham also made 115 appearances for England, a record for an outfield player, and represented his country in three World Cups (1998, 2002, 2006), although the closest he came to winning was the quarterfinal round (in 2002 and 2006). He might have played in a fourth in 2010, but he tore his Achilles tendon three months before the opening while playing for A.C. Milan. Still, Beckham’s global appeal went undiminished.
Instead he was invited to join Coach Fabio Capello’s staff as a liaison between the coaches and the players. That could be a hint of his plans for life after his playing career, if his decision is indeed final, though he has long been rumored to be interested in club ownership, especially in Major League Soccer. He has accepted a role as an ambassador for Chinese soccer, which will include personal appearances to help boost the popularity of the sport in that country. “I think he’s the most famous athlete in the world,” Wahl said. While a similar claim could be made about the soccer star Lionel Messi, the Olympic sprinting champion Usain Bolt and the golfer Tiger Woods, Wahl said, “Beckham has a celebrity component the other guys don’t. There’s a multiplier effect. If you play the old game, ‘How many people on earth recognize this sports star?’ I think Beckham is recognized by more people than anyone else.”
“I’m thankful to P.S.G. for giving me the opportunity to continue, but I feel now is the right time to finish my career, playing at the highest level,” Beckham said. In addition to the typical mob scenes in his home country or the city where he was currently playing — which are standard for soccer stars like Messi of Argentina, Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal or Neymar of Brazil — Beckham’s worldwide reach often seemed limitless.
There is a fitting twist to Beckham’s announcing his exit barely a week after Ferguson did the same. The two reigned over English soccer together, winning six Premier League titles between 1996 and 2003. The two had a falling out in 2003 when an irate Ferguson kicked a cleat on the floor of the locker room during a tirade and it hit Beckham in the head. They have mended their relationship since, and both became legends in their own right. In Tokyo, a chocolate Beckham statue that stood nearly 10 feet tall was featured in a downtown department store after the 2002 World Cup. In Australia, mere speculation that Beckham might be interested in playing in the country’s league prompted wealthy businessmen to consider helping finance what would have surely been an outrageously expensive transfer.
In the end, Beckham said he hopes he is not remembered for his celebrity, but for his performances on the fieid. In China — where Beckham’s nickname is Xiao Bei, or Little Becks — Beckham signed a contract reportedly worth as much as $75 million to simply be an ambassador for its scandal-plagued league. (During his first appearance in March, Beckham — wearing a suit and tie — famously slipped and fell when he attempted a free kick at a public relations event, taking a tumble that led to YouTube views around the world).
“I want people to see me as a hardworking footballer — someone who, when he steps on the pitch, he gives everything he’s got,” Beckham said. “When I look back on my career that is how I look back on it and that is how I hope people have seen me.” “Arguably, his brand has made more impact on football than any other player in history, with the possible exception of Pelé,” said Stephen A. Greyser, a sports management expert and professor at Harvard Business School. “He may be retiring from the pitch, but he’s not retiring from football and he’s not retiring from his brand. His impact will surely go on.”
But separating Beckham the player from Beckham the cultural phenomenon is nearly impossible. Most soccer stars’ retirements are not greeted by a statement from the prime minister. Beckham’s brand, perhaps more than any other athlete, was himself. While Michael Jordan will always be linked with Nike, Beckham’s business associations ran a spectacularly wide gamut: when he arrived in the United States in 2007, he already had agreements with Adidas, Gillette, Motorola, Pepsi and Walt Disney, and added partnerships with Giorgio Armani, Sharpie, Yahoo, Electronic Arts, Samsung, Burger King, Sainsbury and Breitling at various times during his stay in the United States. He also launched an underwear line with H&M.
A Downing Street spokesman passed along Prime Minister David Cameron’s sentiment Thursday: “The prime minister’s view is that David Beckham has been an outstanding footballer throughout his career, but not only that, he has been a brilliant ambassador for this country, not least if we remember all the work he did on helping us win London 2012,” the spokesman said. Beckham’s role in raising global awareness of soccer in the United States is undeniable. During Beckham’s first year with the Galaxy, the club generally saw revenue rise as much as 40 percent, according to Navigate, a sports and entertainment research company.
Perhaps he will simply be remembered as the most famous soccer player on earth. “It’ll be a long while before anyone in M.L.S. has a jersey with the same global popularity,” said A. J. Maestas, the company’s president. “A very, very long while.”
“All over the world you say ‘David Beckham’ and people know who that is,” said the former manager of England’s international team, Sven-Goran Eriksson. “I don’t think any other football player is more popular than he.” Adidas has estimated it has sold some 10 million replica Beckham jerseys over his 20-year career (in addition to countless pairs of the Predator cleats that Beckham also marketed), and — at 38 years old — he still placed eighth on Forbes’s 2012 list of the highest-paid athletes with an estimated $46 million in salary and endorsements.
Part of Beckham’s appeal, of course, is that branding is a family business. When Beckham launched his cologne in 2005, he did it with the company that also licenses his wife Victoria’s perfumes. The couple then launched a joint fragrance line, Intimately Beckham, a year later. Even Beckham’s 1 son, Romeo, 10, is involved in pushing the family brand as he was featured in a recent advertising campaign for Burberry.
“"If you had told me as a young boy I would have played for and won trophies with my boyhood club Manchester United, proudly captained and played for my country over one hundred times and lined up for some of the biggest clubs in the world, I would have told you it was a fantasy,” Beckham said in a statement. “I’m fortunate to have realized those dreams.”
While fulfilling those dreams, he remained immensely likable, assuming a role that in England is sometimes compared to that of the late Queen Mother.
“Everybody in Britain remembers her as the little old lady who turned up at events with a smile on her face and never said anything important or offensive,” said Szymanski, the British author and Michigan professor. “Beckham is like that. He never puts his foot wrong. He’s nice to everyone. You could never fault him for not giving his all. He doesn’t have enemies. It’s hard to dislike him unless you’re deliberately perverse.”