David Beckham’s elegant but pointless cameo role for Paris Saint-Germain in their Champions League defeat to Barcelona the other day got plenty of play in the British press, despite his ineffectiveness. We love Becks — who doesn’t? — but he’s no longer the player he was, let alone the one he was hyped up to be.
He will always have a role, whether it’s as a football ambassador, or simply as an agreeable figure who gets wheeled out to front anything from marital stability to handing out the canapés at a G8 summit. Becks himself has no doubt about his ability to contribute on the pitch, it’s just the rest of us, and he has never really paid too much attention to what we think.
A few hundred miles away, down on the Côte d’Azur, there is another English sporting icon with a better CV than Becks who is every bit his equal in the looks stakes.
Get Britain's best politics newsletters
Register to get The Spectator's insight and opinion straight to your inbox. You can then read two free articles each week.
Already a subscriber? Log in
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in