Beckham to retire...

[bobb]

...at the end of the season as described here

Love him or loath him, he's certainly had a remarkable career and has transcended his sport in a way that is quite rare. Pretty much everyone from Allahabad to Alabama will know his name...

[LEE]

Despite the gutter press trying to make him public enemy #1 he's a real footballing legend.

I never saw anyone try harder for club and country. Certainly our failure to win anything wasn't down to his lack of talent or effort.

I never saw him do anything that warranted the sort of hatred he received.

He seems to have managed to raise a family in the glare of the world's media.

Good on him, and good on his missus (someone else who didn't deserve the spite).

[Salvatore]

Love him or loath him, he's certainly had a remarkable career and has transcended his sport in a way that is quite rare. Pretty much everyone from Allahabad to Alabama will know his name...

Quite. I spotted this lad in Atar, Mauritania.

[spindrift]

David Beckham lived next-door-but-fifteen to me twenty years before I moved in.

[pcolbeck]

I heard a really good summing up of him on the radio yesterday. The football editor of one of the papers (cant remember which one) said of him that he wasn't the most naturally gifted player in the world (ie talented but not in the Pele or Messi league) but he worked harder than any other player he had ever known to hone the talent he had and that he really loved the game.

[LEE]

Love him or loath him, he's certainly had a remarkable career and has transcended his sport in a way that is quite rare. Pretty much everyone from Allahabad to Alabama will know his name...

Quite. I spotted this lad in Atar, Mauritania.

I hate to break this to you...but that's not him.

[caerau]

I think the raising of the family in the glare of the media is not really something he can be lauded for.
After all him and his missus and their agents have deliberately courted all that.

[Wowbagger]

Is he going to spend more time with Alex Ferguson?

[Deano]

A reasonably likeable footballer, and a thoroughly annoying brand.

[mrcharly-YHT]

I really dislike football, but have liked DB ever since I saw a clip of him on TV. Some little girls came up to present him some flowers and he completely blanked the press and everyone apart from those kids, gave them his undivided attention. Most celebs would have mugged to the camera at that point.

Oh and another one; during the olympics when he hid in the photo booth and popped out to ask people if he could have his photo with them.

He comes across to me as a genuinely nice bloke which seems rare in the world of football and celebrity.

[Cudzoziemiec]

He comes across to me as a genuinely nice bloke which seems rare in the world of football and celebrity.

I agree.

[Biggsy]

He's such a gentle man.  I don't understand how anyone could hate him.  Is it because he left the UK?

(I'm clueless cos I'm not a footie fan).

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

It's cos he deliberately behaved in such a way that England didn't win the World Cup one year when they wouldn't have won it anyway. Or something.

He's a great footballer and he seems like a nice man. But I'm much less happy about his retirement football than I was about his wife's from singing.

[mrcharly-YHT]

He's such a gentle man.  I don't understand how anyone could hate him.  Is it because he left the UK?

In australia they call it the 'tall poppy syndrome'. One poppy is taller than the rest so people knock it down.

He's a talented rich sportsman who happens to be good looking and have a pretty wife who is devoted to him. Obviously you have to hate the bastard.

Or you could actually just accept and admire two fairly gentle souls who seem to, well, keep a soul in a cynical attention-grabbing world.

[caerau]

Or at least that's the image they like to portray

[Wowbagger]

Or you could actually just accept and admire two fairly gentle souls who seem to, well, keep a soul in a cynical attention-grabbing world.

Until the right magazine offers them enough cash for it.

[LEE]

Or you could actually just accept and admire two fairly gentle souls who seem to, well, keep a soul in a cynical attention-grabbing world.

Are you quoting Piers Morgan there?

[mrcharly-YHT]

I've never been likened to Piers Morgan before. This is quite terrifying.

[Oscar's dad]

What I like about the bloke is that he's clearly matured as he's got older, not a feat that everyone manages.  He's gone from being the knob that kicked some other player during an important international tournament (you can tell I'm a footie fan can't you?) to being a decent ambassador for the UK who does decent stuff that he doesn't need to do.  Hasn't he been giving his French footie earnings to charity?

The whole maturing thing sets a good example and gives the rest of us knobs some hope that one day we might mature as well.

Have a good retirement Dave.  I plan on being a morris dancer when I retire.  I wonder if Mr Beckham has a similar ambition?

[bobb]

He's gone from being the knob that kicked some other player...

To be fair, every weekend there are footballers doing things that are far more knobbish than Beckham's little kick out at Simeone..

[Oscar's dad]

He's gone from being the knob that kicked some other player...

To be fair, every weekend there are footballers doing things that are far more knobbish than Beckham's little kick out at Simeone..

I'm sure you're right, not being well versed in the beautiful game I wouldn't know.

Didn't The Sun print a dart board with Beck's face on it after the aforementioned incident? 

[Andrew]

Hasn't he been giving his French footie earnings to charity?

Well yes.... but he has done rather well having his accommodation (some outrageous figure too, €17,000 per night??) plus expenses all paid by PSG.  And a bit of 'pocket money' too as I recall.  His salary is probably negligible in comparison!

Still, fair enough to the bloke. He seems a decent enough sort and even if he hasn't actually played too many minutes for PSG, he's still pulled a few punters through the turnstiles etc. PSG probably quids in on the deal.

[LEE]

He's gone from being the knob that kicked some other player...

To be fair, every weekend there are footballers doing things that are far more knobbish than Beckham's little kick out at Simeone..

Simeone was the real knob in that incident.

[Wowbagger]

Isn't being a knob pretty standard for professional footballers?

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

No.