“He cannot kick with his left foot, he cannot head a ball, he cannot tackle and he doesn’t score many goals. Apart from that he’s all right.”
- George Best on David Beckham
David Beckham, it is said, has one very famous right leg and an even more famous face. The former England captain owes his fame, fortune and the fact that he’s still the world’s highest earning footballer in part to the former, but largely to the latter.
“I’ve always been a big Manchester United fan right from when Giggs, Beckham and Neville were just starting out. Beckham always had a good free kick and few could bend the ball from the right like he did. But had it not been for his good looks, he wouldn’t have been half the sportsman he is,” says event manager Nikhil Acharya. Indeed, one of the arguments against the “beautiful game” has been that lately, it’s become more of a glam sport. With WAG culture becoming all-pervasive, players are peddled not so much for their on-field skills, as much as for their looks. If a Cristiano Ronaldo finds himself on the gossip columns more than the sport pages, then it surely is cause for concern. Or so the footie fan would think.
Even at a mega football extravaganza like the World Cup, there has been a generous dose of the glam-factor involved. The WAGs and their merry ways are well documented, and no sports page or bulletin is complete without an update from the other side. “The footballers earn in addition of 100,000 pounds a week and it’s natural for them to splurge. But what the gossip diggers forget is they are footballers,” Nikhil points out, urging for more top-10 gifted footballers lists rather than the top-10 “dishy” ones that he seems to be inundated with.
However, there are those who think the focus still hasn’t shifted away from the game. Media professional Clint Fernandez cites the super-stardom of players like Carlos Tevez, Franck Ribery and Wayne Rooney as an example. “These are not players that you would call attractive. They made their name by pure footballing skills alone. In fact, we don’t know anything about the personal life of Lionel Messi, the world’s best footballer today. That proves that there are enough genuine football fans out there, who don’t bother how pretty the face is, as long as the feet work well,” he concludes.