Burning desire likely to see Beckham soldier on
Reuters - Monday 15 March 2010, 12:48
MILAN - A burning desire to compete that
has marked his career from the outset means David Beckham is
unlikely to quit football despite being likely to miss this year's
World Cup due to an agonising Achilles tendon tear.
The 34-year-old England midfielder, who suffered the injury
in AC Milan's 1-0 win over Chievo on Sunday, has shown his
battling qualities time and again during a career where he has
been portrayed as a fashion icon as much as a football player.
"The guy sees himself primarily as a footballer and if he
can come back, he will," Simon Chadwick, Professor of Sport
Business Strategy and Marketing at Coventry University, told
Reuters.
NEWS: Capello saddened by Beckham blow
Already in the twilight of his career, a determined Beckham
had persuaded Los Angeles Galaxy to let him have two loan spells
at Milan in order to stay in the reckoning for an England squad
place at what would have been a fourth World Cup.
Now that his dreams of playing in South Africa in June look
in tatters, given the recovery period from such an injury is
generally over three months, the former Manchester United and
Real Madrid winger will be contemplating his future.
He already holds a record 115 caps for an England outfield
player but the prospect of missing the World Cup has hit him
hard, judging by the touchline tears on Sunday and his dejected
look when leaving his hotel to fly to Finland for an operation.
One of the most marketable sportsmen in the world had
previously said he had no intention of retiring from the
international game after the tournament despite his age.
Beckham has consistently said how inspired he was by former
Milan team mate Paolo Maldini, who played on until he was 40,
but the Londoner would also accept his recent form has been well
below the heights he reached in his prime.
A humbling 4-0 defeat by United in the Champions League last
week at his beloved former Old Trafford home will have left him
with mixed emotions too.
INNER DESIRE
Milan chief executive Adriano Galliani is sure he will
return to club football at least and has offered him the chance
to play for the Italian side again next season even with no
World Cup in sight.
"He came to Milan in order to be called up by England coach
Fabio Capello. Unfortunately this is football but he has a real
strength of mind," Galliani said, aware Beckham is due to return
to Galaxy and the less high profile U.S. league in July.
That inner desire to prove people wrong has been burning
within Beckham since he burst onto the scene at Manchester
United in the mid-1990s.
He was reviled for being sent off in England's World Cup
defeat by Argentina at the 1998 World Cup but came back to help
United lift the 1999 Champions League.
The national captain shrugged off a metatarsal injury to
participate in the 2002 tournament and when he left United in
2003, Beckham became a rare English player to be successful
abroad during his four-year spell at Real.
His mega-money move to Major League Soccer club Galaxy,
where he still has two years left on his contract, demonstrated
his shrewd business brain and he will not be short of
opportunities if he fails to make a sporting comeback.
"I don't think he necessarily does need to come back to
football from a commercial point of view. He's created a
post-career business empire if he doesn't come back," Professor
Chadwick added.
"Milan reinvigorated his football career and he put
commercial activities to one side. But there's only one thing
certain with an athlete brand, they are going to get old and
retire."
Follow FFT.com on Twitter
Join FFT.com on Facebook