Happy birthday, David Beckham!

Today is David Beckham’s 45th birthday. It’s also the 9th anniversary of Osama Bin Laden’s death. I was torn between what to write about but then figured David Beckham had a far greater impact on my childhood. It’s hard to believe he’s 45, and in a self-indulgent take, is a reminder of how old I am too, far from the young, carefree days when I idolized him. Growing up in the ‘90s, it was all about cricket for me. Cricket was the sport I watched on television, it was the sport I played with friends every evening and was the one that was talked about at home as well. There wasn’t much exposure to other sports, ‘cable’ TV was still in its infancy which meant we didn’t yet get regular transmission of European football leagues, or tennis tournaments, or Formula One races. India also didn’t have much of a presence in other sports, and while woefully inadequate at cricket in the ‘90s too, there was at least a history of sporadic success and the promise of Sachin Tendulkar which it had going for it. All of that changed around the turn of the millennium. Other than a few hazy memories of the ’98 Football World Cup, my first real memory of football is the 1999 Champions League final, where Manchester United staged a dramatic comeback in the final few minutes to win against Bayern Munich. Even then, I didn’t really get into the sport for at least the next 2 years, when my next proper memory is the man in question, David Beckham’s last-minute freekick against Greece which ensured England qualified for the 2002 World Cup after a nervy qualification campaign. That moment instantly made me fall in love with football, and in particular, Beckham. Cable TV had exploded in India by then, and the English Premier League was starting to become a regular fixture. It had my attention, and Manchester United was my team, at least for the next few years, till I decided to ‘switch’ teams, something that’s thought of as unimaginable, but perhaps was a sign of two things; my following for Man United was largely player-based rather than the team, and also I just wasn’t that invested in football for starters?

Beckham was the epitome of coolness for me in my early teens. And it wasn’t just me, it was all my friends at school too who would follow almost every move he made. From his exploits on the pitch to his popstar wife to his ever-changing hairstyles, he was someone we all wanted to be. Even a really good friend of mine, who was frustratingly never into sports at all, literally begged me to ask my dad to get him a Manchester United jersey with Beckham’s name and number 7 at the back from the Manchester United store in Singapore. (Fun Fact: 6 months after this, Beckham moved to Real Madrid). I remember being absolutely heartbroken coming back home after school during the 2002 World Cup to learn from my Mom (A devoted Brazil fan) that England had been knocked out earlier that morning by Brazil. I didn’t care much for England, but I wanted Beckham to win, and he’d had such a strong World Cup so far! Long after he’d moved to Real Madrid, I passionately followed England at the 2004 European Championships and the 2006 World Cup, going through the ups and downs that England fans go through, only to watch them cruelly denied on penalties in both tournaments. And this fandom was despite Beckham missing 2 penalties at Euro 2004; he could do nothing wrong in my eyes. I read his autobiography ‘My Side’ from cover to cover, and still, have a copy of that book in my library at home. While it wasn’t intended to be so, the book still has an influence over my life, as one of the words in that book is a word I use as a password for almost all things I sign up for. So if someone wants to hack me, get a hold of that book, and try logging in to my accounts with each word, there’s your quarantine activity! I even watched Bend It Like Beckham, and not just once. In fact, I remember even buying the ‘Bend It Like Beckham’ book, which was rather disappointing, just the script of the movie, so a total waste of time. I could relate to the main character in the movie so much, with all the posters of ‘Becks’ on my wall, and countless hours trying to take a freekick like him in the park, mimicking him perfectly right till the output of the actual kick. My passion for him and the sport soon faded. I continued to watch football, though in recent years, it’s dropped off a fair bit, and my love for cricket has returned, along with a steady following of tennis. He definitely was one of the mainstays of my childhood though, and I’ll always have a soft spot for him and the game he helped me fall in love with. Happy Birthday, Becks! Thanks for reading!