Author: Cedrick

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Source: Zhihu

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Beckham is a unique player.

On the court, he became famous at a young age but went through ups and downs. He received many honors but also had many regrets. He incurred criticism and prejudice from some people when he was young. At the end of his playing career, he gained recognition from most people with his strength and hard work.

Off the court, he is a representative figure of the wave of world sports commercialization at the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century. While earning a steady stream of advertising revenue, he also devoted himself to public welfare undertakings and became a famous figure in the football world and the UK. Business card character.

The British "Guardian" once said this in a special report on Beckham - "His football career is the process of football changing from a wonderful competition to a global commodity in the past 20 years. "His career reflects the 20-year transformation of football from beautiful game to global product." Beckham is obviously the representative figure of football commercialization.

Although he is not the greatest player in football history, he must be one of the most well-known players. It is difficult for him to compare with Pele, Maradona and other football kings at the competitive level, but his impact on football is no less than that of several predecessors. To a certain extent, it can even be said that he has changed the world together with this era. this sport.

1. Who is Beckham

In fact, because of Beckham's high exposure and wide range of areas, everyone will have a different Beckham in their eyes. Fans, especially female fans and female viewers are mostly attracted by his appearance, but there are also a large number of fans who are disgusted with Beckham's excessive commercial packaging and high-profile private life. However, his football skills and fighting spirit have been recognized by most people.

Beckham is a typical British player. He was born in a working-class family. He participated in the professional echelon training of the football club when he was a boy, entered the first team step by step, and became a professional player.

Beckham is not typical. On the court, he does not rely on a strong body and abundant power to play like traditional British players, but relies on gorgeous passing skills and good tactical awareness-at his peak, his long passes and set pieces were at the highest level. It is the highest in the world. He makes his private life public in a high-profile manner. In Britain, where tabloids are developed, he gets along well with the media most of the time. Scandals are rarely reported after his marriage. Compared with "bad boys" such as John Terry, who succeeded the captain of the national team, he can be called three good ones. born.

Beckham is committed to expanding his own commercial value and promoting football. He has played in leagues in England, Spain, Italy, the United States, and France, and traveled around the world but has never forgotten to serve his country. He has used his actions many times to Said that a call-up from the England national team is the most important thing for him.

Beckham has a sunny and handsome image, and his public conversations appear modest and candid (and because his voice is not masculine enough and has a high pitch, he will be ridiculed by fans. Some people even call it Beckham. The only drawback). He admits to being mysophobic and is obsessed with tattoos. He has more than 20 tattoos on his body, mostly about his family. He attributed his frequent tattoos to his obsessive-compulsive disorder and claimed to be addicted to the pain of being pricked by needles.

Beckham has eight Chinese characters tattooed on his body: "Life and death, wealth and honor depend on heaven." However, he never slacks off in his career and always strives for it. It seems that "God will reward hard work, but hard work depends on manpower." reason.

2. Beckham and football

Beckham has never concealed his love for the sport of football. Some players regard playing football as a means of making a living. In their early 30s, they get tired of the high-intensity life of playing every week and retire early. The 37-year-old Beckham can be called a "senior player" in today's football world, and he has not expressed any intention to retire. At the end of 2011, he signed a two-year contract with the Los Angeles Galaxy.

For him, who has such frequent business activities, playing football is no longer about making money - his income from a commercial tour in Asia can exceed the salary he received from the team for the entire season, and he still Train and compete every week like a professional player. On the one hand, he loves football and is not willing to just hang out in the entertainment industry. On the other hand, he still insists on his dream of representing the national team.

Beckham is the player with the most appearances for the national team among active English players, with a total of 115 times, and is second only to goalkeeper Hilton in the 1970s (125 times) in history. This is a very respectable statistic in the football world. He also captained the national team for six years (2001-2006), played in three World Cups, and entered leadership at the 2010 World Cup as an assistant to head coach Fabio Capello as an FA correspondent.

There are also many incidents in which Beckham has caused controversy on the football field. In the 1998 World Cup, he kicked Simeone of the Argentina team. Simeone fell to the ground very cunningly, causing Beckham to be sent off with a red card. The England team was left with one less player at the last moment and was eventually eliminated. After returning home, Beckham It was met with massive verbal and written criticism from the national media and fans. Beckham later regretted this experience whenever he talked about it, thinking that "I was too young at the time."

In 2003, Beckham had a conflict with Ferguson, his mentor for 11 years. In the locker room, a sneaker thrown by Ferguson broke his eye socket. The relationship between the two mentors and apprentices dropped to a freezing point. After the season, Beckham Ham left Manchester United and went to Spanish team Real Madrid. Because of the high salary offered by Real Madrid, some commentators believed that Beckham's move was ungrateful and greedy for money. But as time went by, the two sides gradually reconciled. At the 2010 BBC Sports Personality Awards Lifetime Achievement Award Ceremony, Beckham specially thanked Sir Alex Ferguson, saying that Ferguson was "like a father" to him.

The mentoring relationship between Beckham and Ferguson originated in 1993, when Ferguson promoted him and several other young players into the first team and insisted on cultivating these young players against all odds. Let Manchester United continue to be great instead of buying big-name stars from other countries. In 1995, Beckham and five other young players (Scholes, Giggs, Gary Neville, Phil Neville, Bart) were officially integrated into the main lineup of Manchester United and were entrusted with important tasks as soon as they debuted. Beckham quickly became an important tactical piece of the team with his superb free kick skills. In the first Premier League game of the 1996/1997 season, he scored a 50-meter super long shot to score against the opponent Wimbledon. , became famous with one goal and shocked the world. The video of the goal was repeatedly broadcast on major TV stations around the world. At that time, almost all Chinese fans got to know Beckham through this goal.

Beckham's positioning skills are completely the result of professional training. Experts call his free kick action "textbook style." When he was in the youth team, he practiced free kicks late into the night every time, and finally developed his superb "golden right foot" - yes, it looks like something from a vulgar novel, but it was trained hard by Beckham. A true portrayal.

After the 2011 MLS final, Beckham admitted that he had suffered from asthma since childhood, and his story of overcoming the disease to practice football became known.

Beckham is one of the few English players who has achieved outstanding results outside his home country. He has played in the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Major League Soccer and Ligue 1. He has a rare understanding of different cultures and playing styles. Adaptability, on the one hand, he has achieved many honors in football, and on the other hand, he has broadened his international market.

3. Beckham and Business

The British "Guardian" once had this sentence in a special report on Beckham - "His football career has been over the past 20 years. "His career reflects the 20-year transformation of football from beautiful game to global product." Beckham is obviously a representative figure of football commercialization.

The brands and products he has endorsed include sporting goods Adidas, electronic products Samsung, communication service provider Vodafone, soft drink Pepsi-Cola, men's products Gillette, Italian Police sunglasses, H&M, etc.

Beckham has a large number of advertising contracts and has shot many wonderful advertisements. In the latest mobile phone commercial for Olympic sponsor Samsung, which aired on May 21, 2012, Beckham played "Ode to Joy" with a football, setting off a new wave of communication on social networks.

In the list of the highest-paid football teams in the world, Manchester United had been in the top spot until 2003, and with Beckham's transfer to Real Madrid, Real Madrid also surpassed them in this selection. Manchester United has become the world's highest-grossing football club after 2003, and Beckham's commercial value is evident. In the Times UK Sports Rich List just released on May 6, 2012, Beckham topped the list with a net worth of ￡160 million.

It can be said that only in this special era can a figure like Beckham be born. Without the commercialization of football in the early 1990s, players' income and influence would have been limited, and there would be no Beckham today. Putting aside the rights and wrongs of commercialization, at the level that he made many people who had never watched football understand and fall in love with football, his contribution to the sport of football is something that few can rival.

4. Beckham and family

Traditionally, football is a working-class sport in the UK. Like most British players, Beckham comes from a working-class family. His father was a plumber and his mother a hairstylist. His love for football comes from his parents, who are both Manchester United fans. When he was a child, he often traveled with them from London to Manchester to watch Manchester United games. Later, he signed a contract with the Manchester United youth team without hesitation. "It only took a minute." ”.

When Beckham was 24 years old, he married Victoria, a member of the Spice Girls, and was known as the "golden boy" union. However, at the time, he was not as well-known as Victoria, who was popular at the time. The Spice Girls disbanded a year after their marriage, and Beckham's popularity gradually surpassed Victoria's. While maintaining her fashion career, Victoria also acted as Beckham's "good wife", helping Beckham enter the entertainment industry and co-starring in commercials many times. In his acceptance speech for the 2010 BBC Sports Personality Lifetime Achievement Award, Beckham expressed his special gratitude to Victoria, saying emotionally, "She has sacrificed a lot for me."

But there are also some people who think that Beckham is a "hep-controller" and even Victoria's puppet. Even Beckham's mentor at Manchester United, Ferguson, said angrily in 2007: "Since the relationship with Beckham, After Victoria got married, Beckham was no longer the young man who practiced football until late at night every day. He had changed. He was a big celebrity, and football only accounted for a small part of his life."

Victoria and Beckham currently has three sons and one daughter. The eldest son, Brooklyn, is 13 years old and likes to play football and has a Chinese character "Crazy" tattooed on his arm; the second son, Romeo, is 9 years old and likes to dance; the third son, Cruz, is 7 years old; and the youngest daughter, Harper · Harper Seven is not yet 1 year old, and her Chinese fans nickname her "Xiao Qi".

Beckham is recognized as a good father and frequently takes his children to public events. He also said on the American program "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" that family plays an important role in his life. First of all, I hope to have a big family.

5. Beckham, Britain, and the world

In recent years, Beckham has participated in many relevant social activities in the UK and is a "business card" figure in the UK.

As a Londoner, Beckham served as a member of the British Olympic Committee's bid team at the 2005 Olympic Committee Plenary Session in Singapore and did a lot of publicity work. He also conducted a speech on the day. made a speech to help London successfully bid for the 2012 Olympic Games.

Since then, Beckham has often played the role of ambassador for the 2012 London Olympics. As a key figure in carrying the torch from Athens, Greece, to London in early May 2012, he has also repeatedly expressed his hope to seize this opportunity. The only opportunity, to represent the British Olympic Football Team at the Olympics (the British Olympic Football Team is only organized when the UK hosts the Olympics).

Beckham has participated extensively in public welfare activities. He is a goodwill ambassador of the United Nations Children's Society and has given strong support to activities on children, AIDS prevention and other themes.

He visited the British Blind Olympic football team in 2011 and British troops in Afghanistan in 2010. Beckham was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by the Queen in the summer of 2003 and was a guest at Prince William's wedding in 2011.

In February 2012, when the Chinese Vice President visited the United States, he watched a Los Angeles Lakers basketball game and met Beckham during the break. Beckham gave him a Galaxy jersey of his own. .

In May 2012, U.S. President Obama met with the Los Angeles Galaxy, which won the MLS championship, at the White House. Beckham gave him a Galaxy jersey.

The 2002 film "Bend It Like Beckham" made Beckham well-known in North America. The film depicts a British Indian Sikh girl who worships Beckham to the exclusion of family and race. He became a football player due to issues such as religion and gender. It is worth mentioning that this film was broadcast on North Korean TV in 2011, becoming the first Western film in history to be broadcast on North Korean TV.

Attachment: Celebrity Comments

Former British Prime Minister Blair: "I think he is outstanding, and even I am a fan of his. Whether he is representing England or representing the highest level in the world He has made great contributions to every club. And every time he faces pressure from public opinion, he can use actions to solve problems, especially in the past few months (the eve of the 2005 Olympic bid). Everything he did was very respectable. We should be proud of having such a player." Former British Prime Minister Brown: "Beckham did a lot to help us win the right to host the Olympics. The whole country should be grateful to him and other people for their efforts. It will be more beneficial to the whole country if he can continue to help us on some big projects in the future."

Former England national team. Head coach and famous coach Capello: "Beckham is a person who regards football as the highest level. In the past, too much packaging and publicity have concealed this point. In addition, his football understanding is first-rate, and he has a lot of knowledge about football. He also called Beckham "the most professional football player I have ever seen."

Current Los Angeles Galaxy captain and American star Donovan: "The audience only saw Beckham's performance on the court, but we also saw Beckham off the court. His performance was equally extraordinary. Excellent. You may not know that he has been struggling with injuries in the last six or seven games and has persisted."