WHEN EYES ARE REDUCING WORDS
Neither the most knowledgeable and amusing online blogger writing about football, nor the English and Spanish tabloids sometimes manage to cast doubt in the reader's soul. For example, someone is still not sure whether the words attributed to David Beckham, who recently complains about his depressed state in Real Madrid, are really his words? But the one who asks this question, the year before last, the broadcast of the match “Real” - “Barcelona”, apparently, bypassed. As well as frames with the participation of the ex-captain of the English national team. Which more eloquently than any words told about how miserable he is in Spain, how he would like to leave her and how sad he is because of the vicissitudes of fate.
This happened at the end of the match, as Beckham no longer falls into the starting lineup of Real Madrid. He replaces when his teammate is injured or tired, usually closer to the 90th minute. This time he appeared on the field 13 minutes before the end. “Real” by that time already successfully won 2-0; the game was made. But not even two minutes had passed before David got the mustard plaster. Out of the blue. Beckham hit the ball a moment after the whistle, but such episodes are always interpreted at the discretion of the judges - the player maliciously entered or in the heat of the fight. The referee might not have shown the yellow card, but he showed it.
Writing the name of the offender in a notebook, the sly Alfonso Perez Burrul decided to show friendliness and acquired the Englishman. Beckham stumbled back from him like a leper. With aversion close to hatred. It was the quintessence of annoyance accumulated in him for all three Spanish years.
But his eyes said a lot more. The card was just an excuse, an involuntary occasion to let off steam from the boiler. In which not only anger and disappointment were brewed, but also sadness with pain. The culprits of these feelings, which cannot be given free will, were those who, like the new Real Madrid coach Fabio Capello, did not like Beckham; he himself (because he did not foresee, did not feel the situation when it was necessary to leave on time and beautifully); and life (because it’s so cruel).
ROCKY "ZHERLAN"
Starting the fourth season at Real Madrid, Beckham had something to prove. As he has said more than once, he likes to shut up critics. And the football god prepared for him the most difficult test at that time. Excommunicated from England at the age of 31, Beckham had only to give one Real Madrid match for another and finally win the most prestigious trophy with the club. And the first problem that the player had not yet encountered before joining Capello's team was getting into the main team.
It all started as well as possible. He overcame the first barrier: he convinced Capello that he acted better in the midfield on the right than Brazilian defender Sicinho, whose “blurred” role did not fit the Italian Procrustean scheme. As a result, Beckham entered the field in two starting matches of the championship from the first minutes. And when Sicinho suffered a knee injury for a long time that disabled him, the competition ended in principle. In addition, in a home match of the third round, Beckham scored a handsome goal. As a reminder that he was once happy at Real Madrid, the fans adored him, and that in Madrid he survived his second finest hour after Manchester United. Maybe those glorious times will be back. And maybe it will be even better than ever. With such thoughts on September 13, he again came out at the base of Real Madrid in the first match of the Champions League - away against Lyon.
Stepping on the Gerlan field, Beckham did not suspect that that evening would be fatal for him. It will be the beginning of the end. Voyage to France turned into a complete fiasco of Real Madrid - Lyon won 2-0, but by the break could score five goals. The Royal Club showed itself to be a disorganized crowd, and the vaunted Cappella organization of the game caused laughter. In the 54th minute Beckham was replaced by Guti, and since then David's place has been in reserve.
Or almost in reserve. Yes, last Wednesday in the cup match against the little-known “Esih” he got into the starting lineup. But thanks to the fact that Capello decided to check in the case of the reservists. And if this match was destined to be a chance for Beckham to regain himself in the “Real”, then he missed it. The Madrid team parted with the club from the third division - 1: 1, the field resembled a garden, and the only bright spot in the Englishman’s game was dedication. He, as always, fought. He tried.
“EVERYTHING IS THAT IN THE DILIJANIS OF FREE PLACES, IMAGINE NO”
At the moment, in the absence of injuries, Beckham can count (if, of course, he remains in Real Madrid until the end of the season) only on regular substitutions and sporadic appearances in the base in unimportant fights. Why? There are two reasons: too high competition and over-defensive Capello tactics.
Before, “in the era of rock and roll,” under the previous president, Florentino Perez, Real Madrid enchanted with the motto “Attack and Attack Again,” and there is no grass growing on Santiago Bernabeu. The lineup of the defensive midfielder disappeared as a class. And Beckham was used in his favorite “Mancunian” position of the right attacking midfielder, or, what happened more often, in the place of the right central midfielder, just above the defensive line; this is often called the position of Keane or Vieira.
Today, the Capello game model includes not one, but two oporniks. Previously, Beckham played along with Guti, who was no less focused on the attack, but under Capello in “Real” new untouchables appeared: the workaholic Emerson acting on the verge of a foul and the powerful, fast and omnipresent Mamada Diarra. None of them will cut a filigree pass into half the field and aggravate the game with an insidious lumbago - you will wait a hundred years. But they are so selflessly creeping in tackles and gnawing frantically balls that already to the equator of the match the opponent is completely exhausted. They work, in a word, as hard labor. Capello hardly considered Beckham's candidacy for one of these positions. And will never be considered. He would rather put a pronounced defender there. Such as Ivan Elgera. In other words, while before the arrival of Don Fabio, the Real Madrid attack group consisted of six players, but now it is four. As a result of summer shopping, competition for these four places has become fierce. Too cruel for Beckham.
Guti, Raul, Rud van van Nistelrooy and Robinho are now preferred on the front lines. Ronaldo has not yet gained optimal shape after an injury. As for the “Beckham position” on the right flank, two players are fighting for it. And both in the command hierarchy are superior to the Englishman. This is Robinho, with his game finally starting to resemble the same genius as he was known in Brazil, and rented from Arsenal by Jose Antonio Reyes. Beckham could play closer to the center, but then he would have to compete with Guti (as the dispatcher looks clearly preferable) and Raul, whose best years are already behind, but he is the captain of the team and also suddenly began to add.
IT'S TIME TO ACT
Let's get back to the beginning of our story. In recent days, the world has heard a number of sayings in which Beckham is “saddened” and “disappointed” and “hates sitting on the bench.” What does this mean apart from the terrible moral state of a football player? The fact that Beckham has not yet signed a new contract with Real Madrid. And, it seems, he will not sign it. Publicly, the bosses of Real Madrid say that he will stay. In private conversations, they think differently. If Beckham does not extend the agreement expiring in June with the "creamy", then from January 1 will be entitled to negotiate with other clubs. He may leave during the winter transfer window. At least next season in Madrid, he will probably be gone. He has to make a decision, which he is probably already thinking about. A couple of years to go to one of the largest European leagues? Maybe in English. Perhaps even (in my wildest dreams) at Manchester United, where his old sidekicks Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs are experiencing their second youth, must be envy and longing for Beckham. Or move to American MLS? But this will be the first step to ending a career.
In any case, in the life of Beckham comes a black streak. The most depressing of his career. Even more sinister than the one that was after the inglorious removal in the match against Argentina in the 98th, because then he still had everything ahead. Including the ability to make amends.
And now many people hardly regret it, the gripping grief. But perhaps they should do it. Beckham did not realize this before, but now it dawned on him: you can be not only rich, beautiful and famous, but also a spare. Feeling not only happiness - surrounded by three children and a beautiful wife, but also sadness.
Translation by Andrey KARNAUKHOV