David Beckham was on the verge of a unique transfer last month. No fee was involved and he would only have moved a few hundred yards, but there has never been a scheme like it in the history of the England team.
The Football Association (FA) had decided it would be unsafe to keep the captain with the rest of the squad at their La Manga training camp.
They foresaw him becoming besieged in the bustling hotel. The players’ families were welcome on the trip and the FA’s anxiety over safety issues had been aggravated by newspaper reports of a plot to kidnap Beckham’s wife Victoria, although the case against those accused of the offence recently collapsed.
He was to have been put in a separate house on the complex, with Nigel Mansell’s home there a possible choice. The controversial step was avoided when Beckham’s suspension for this week’s match with Slovakia made it sensible to declare his season over after the friendly against South Africa in Durban last month.
”We had been prepared for a long time,” said Sven-Goran Eriksson. ”He wouldn’t have stayed at the hotel because that would have been impossible. We would have put him close to it, in a private villa.
”Normally we would never make different arrangements [for one player], but our security people saw the problem. It was not his request.”
The ever-expanding hinterland of Beckham’s life beyond the sport is taking on the proportions of a continent and, so far as Sir Alex Ferguson is concerned, every inch of it is dangerous territory. The Manchester United manager has often been
worried about the many activities that could distract Beckham from his work on the field.
After he was accidentally hit by a boot that Ferguson kicked in the Old Trafford dressing room following the defeat by Arsenal in February, there was speculation that the England captain would seek to leave.
Now it is United who seem set on a parting of the ways while Beckham’s representatives, whether through honesty or crafty PR, present him as a loyal servant.
It could indeed be that the Old Trafford board, who confirmed last week that they are in negotiation with Spanish and Italian clubs, feel a fee of up to £16 330-million would be irresistible, particularly if they also judge that they are close to exhausting Beckham’s commercial potential in his present incarnation as a
Premiership player.
There is a temptation, as well, to let some foreign club cope with the Beckham hullabaloo.
The midfielder is unusual in his apparent enjoyment of much of the hysteria he can generate. ”He is obviously coping with it,” the England vice-captain Michael Owen said, ”because he does it so well”.
Beckham’s summer vacation is more of a world tour this year. He met Nelson Mandela on the England trip to South Africa, cut a glamorous figure with Victoria at the MTV Movie Awards in Los Angeles and is expected to go on a jaunt to the Far East before being given an audience with United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan.
A window in his diary will also have to be found for the investiture ceremony at which he is expected to be presented with an Order of the British Empire by the Queen.
Beckham is likeable. After the Euro 2004 match in Vaduz, local children ran towards Liechtenstein coach Ralf Loose to tell him they had got an England player’s autograph.
He hardly needed to ask which star had made time for them. Beckham can be a very engaging human being.
A hectic existence has not sapped the midfielder’s commitment so far and he has even scored in all four of England’s Euro 2004 qualifiers.
His extraordinary circumstances, however, may isolate him from the rest of the squad in a profession where camaraderie is precious.
”It has never been disturbing for us,” said Eriksson. ”He is extremely popular wherever he goes. You saw it in Japan. It was absolutely incredible. In South Africa it was the same. It’s because he’s a great footballer, and maybe because the ladies think he’s a nice-looking young man. And, of course, he’s married to a very
famous wife. From what I have seen, though, he has always lived perfectly. I admire him.
”I have never seen any negative impact on the squad. He works very hard and he just sits in his place on the bus with all the others.
”He is the most popular player we have. It’s very good to have someone like that in your team. He has to be admired because he can handle it.
”I have never noticed anyone looking jealous. Beckham is like the others. That is the secret, I guess: to be a big star without asking for favours.”
Beckham has pulled off the trick so far, but if the global hysteria about him continues reaching new levels his performances will eventually be undermined.
Although he loves football and Manchester United, a weakness for publicity could detach him from both. —