ABSTRACT
It has almost turned into a cliché and sedimented into a timeless Truth in Soccer’s Collective Memory: Mention the name David Beckham and you immediately come to think of phenomena such as global brand, off-field celebrity and political correctness, of metrosexuality, Galácticos and Galaxy. Los Angeles? Yes, that’s it. Soccer player? Not really. One of the game’s all time greatest? Certainly not. Hence, David Beckham as an icon, a legend, has – on the face of it – more to do with society than soccer. However, if we begin to actually think critically about this cliché and to think seriously about David Beckham’s contribution to the game of soccer, we soon realize that behind, or, rather, under the cliché – buried under all these layers of LA glimmer and Parisian glitter – was a player who (almost by sheer coincidence) ended up re-inventing one of soccer’s most mythical positions, the winger, thus reserving a seat for himself in the Pantheon of Soccer together with the likes of other innovators such as Mano Garrincha, Johan Cruyff and Andrea Pirlo. This presumption is also why this essay will devote itself more to soccer than society, that is, more to David Beckham as a soccer legend than to David Beckham as a society icon – without totally neglecting the latter dimension, though.
