More on the story - Such a disappointment for such a great player, as he wont be coming for the next world Cup.. So many dreams shattered in one second


If this is it for David Beckham’s career — and let’s face it, it is — what an awful way to finish things.

Standing alone over the ball on Sunday, Beckham takes a step and appears to roll ever so slightly on his ankle. He tries to move forward again, suddenly looking 84 instead of 34. And then he begins to hop in place. Being Beckham, he doesn’t just drop to the turf. Instead, he hobbles all the way to the sidelines. And then the tears start.

He knows it’s over. As he lay crumpled in pain, he moaned over and over again, “It’s broken.” “It” being his Achilles tendon.

Beckham will not fulfill his dream of playing in a record fourth World Cup with the England team — the dream that has animated him since the day after the last World Cup ended in summer, 2006. However, this morning, they’re already trying to lard in a little hope with the staggering blow. His surgeon says that Beckham might be playing again four months after surgery.

“Playing” being a word that, unlike Beckham, covers a lot of ground.

Speed was always Beckham’s weakness. He’s not fast enough to start games any more. At least, not fast enough to start games for better teams in Europe. He could roll onto the field in a wheelchair and still warrant a spot on a Major League Soccer side, but that stopped interesting him a long time ago.

If he returns, Beckham will be that much slower — too slow to figure.

All he will have left is his incredible ability to swing in dead balls and crosses. That might be enough to catch him on with the second tier of European clubs. That won’t be enough to satisfy his quiet, stubborn pride. He accepted a supporting role with AC Milan in order to secure himself a supporting role with England this summer in South Africa. Now that carrot is gone.

So that’s it, really. Career over.

Beckham signed his first professional contract on his 14th birthday. He started his first game for Manchester United when he was 17. Within a few years, he was the most famous face in the game.

But after all that time on top, and in the summation, Beckham’s career will be defined by disappointment.

At the professional level, he was a very, very good player. Just not the epochal one many had hoped.

He won prizes with Manchester United, but those were not his teams. They belonged to more experienced players like Eric Cantona and Roy Keane. Just as Beckham was aging into the senior role, he began to quarrel with manager Alex Ferguson. After a series of public spats, he was shown the door in 2003.

Since then, it’s been nothing but stumbles.

Real Madrid was already in decline when he arrived, but he came to emblemize the steady fall. He might have improved the Los Angeles Galaxy if he hadn’t arrived with a raft of knee problems that rendered him ineffective for two seasons. In his spare time, he’s a fill-in for Milan, where his presence hardly even registers any more.

His role as the saviour of soccer in North America? That’s a bust, too. Beckham caught America’s eye, but couldn’t bring himself to commit. Eventually, Beckham stopped calling America back. In the final analysis, the high-stakes jilting probably did Major League Soccer as much harm as good.

That won’t trouble Beckham much in years to come, one suspects. He always regarded his club responsibilities — even the meta ones — as secondary to the national cause.

In the final reckoning, that’s what will hurt the most.

In the ’98 World Cup, Beckham’s reputation crashed out alongside England. He became a national whipping boy after being red carded for petulantly kicking Argentina’s Diego Simeone during a pivotal knockout match.

He spent the next four years rehabbing his image.

By the 2002 World Cup, he was England captain and the most famous athlete anywhere. He had his worse game of the tournament in the quarter-finals, as England was manhandled by eventual champions, Brazil.

The enduring image of Beckham is Euro 2004 is him pointing helplessly at a muddy patch on the turf after shanking a penalty kick. Like the country he represents, Beckham’s whole footballing history seems to happen at the penalty spot.

Same old, same old in 2006 — an aging Beckham a non-factor as England went out once again at the quarter-final stage. He was substituted through injury, and left the field in tears.

This summer was his last chance to embed himself in the English memory as one of the greats. That’s gone now. He will fade back into a sizable pack of not-quite-legends. Eventually, he will be more famous for his pop-star appeal than his sporting accomplishments.

Nonetheless, Beckham was unique. Despite the unfulfilled talent, the camera obsession, the strange wife and the constant scrutiny, he never came off as shopworn or tiresome.

His body faded long before his allure. The secret was this — despite all of his gifts, nobody ever tried harder than David Beckham. Even people who weren’t fans of the game understood that much on some very basic level.

He suffered every failure like a small death. He was a lot like us — or, at least, the way we’d hope to be in his situation. He was class all the way. No one who ever spent a moment in his presence could doubt that, or his sincerity.

Today, despite any hopeful noises, it’s over. And despite all he has been given in life, it’s hard not to feel gutted — one last time — while watching David Beckham fall.