Far East rounds on Beckham

Published on Monday 28 June 2004 02:32

ENGLAND captain David Beckham began to feel the backlash of his failure to make an impact at Euro 2004, as elements of the Far East market, which underpins his commercial value, turned against him.

Beckham has been a marketing icon in the Far East since the 2002 World Cup in Japan and Korea, with his popularity having continued following his move from Manchester United to Real Madrid.

He makes millions of pounds a year, not only for himself in commercial deals, but also for his club in shirt sales to the Far East market.

However, his failure to light up the Euro 2004 finals seems to have cast doubts on his status as a genuine world-class player.

Indeed, newspapers in football-obsessed Singapore turned on him after England’s exit to Portugal in the Euro 2004 quarter-finals, focusing on his penalty miss and the recent claims about his private life.

"Blow it like Beckham," read the front-page headline of Singapore’s Straits Times yesterday, along with a photograph of him slumped on the ground after his penalty miss.

In a broadsheet page devoted to him, the country’s Sunday Times newspaper added: "Footballer, pop star, flop - in that chronological order, the short history of David Beckham.

"In just one season, the world has witnessed the downfall of the game’s most phenomenal brand.

"One so ubiquitous in its global attack that it seems such a shame he is now defenceless in defeat, because, with or without his famed right foot, the poor fellow really isn’t skilful enough."

The tabloid New paper did not hold back either. "No-one is more over-hyped than David Beckham. And no-one is more underachieved," one commentator concluded.

"The kid who could do things that had put the genius of Eric Cantona in the shade has turned into a standard midfield water-carrier."

Beckham’s performances have been just as harshly criticised in England, but it is in the Far East where his marketing value is actually highest.

In Thailand, at least, while the Nation newspaper’s headline read, "Becks blunders as curse strikes again", other newspapers gave him an easier time.

Then again, while the Matichon newspaper’s headline was simply "Missed", a column in the Siam Sport Daily still singled out the England captain for blame for his team’s demise.

"England would have gone to the semi-final if Wayne Rooney had not been injured, the referee did not take sides with the host country, and David Beckham did not kick an idiot penalty shot, which he blamed on the pitch," it said.

In India, meanwhile, the Times headline read, "The New Miss England", accompanied by three photos of Beckham blasting his penalty over the bar.

Rather more predictably, the Australian press were delighting in Beckham’s misery, with the Sunday Telegraph dubbing him a "show phoney".

It added: "David Beckham sells a lot of soft drinks and mobile phones, but he still can’t hit the net from 12 yards. Jonny Wilkinson wouldn’t have skied it higher."

Beckham, meanwhile, simply insisted his "commercial issues do not affect my football" as he vowed to bounce back from his mediocre tournament.

"I will take criticism, but at the end of the day I will fight back and people don’t realise how strong I am as a person.

"If they want to write me off, I’ll just keep coming back and back until I’ve won."

Meanwhile, the England coach, Sven-Goran Eriksson, has insisted that there is no need for revolution within the squad ahead of the 2006 World Cup.

Eriksson has pledged to retain the nucleus of the current squad, even though they have not made it past the quarter-finals in either of the past two major tournaments. After all, apart from the suspended Rio Ferdinand, Eriksson’s starting line-up in Portugal was his undoubted first-choice XI, and none of his existing outfield players is aged over 30.

While Gary Neville, Paul Scholes, Beckham and Sol Campbell are all now 29, they still have at least one, if not two, more tournaments in them. Eriksson is also hoping that the likes of Wayne Rooney, Michael Owen, Steven Gerrard, John Terry, Ashley Cole and Frank Lampard - who are all under 25 - will have progressed even further by then.

"No, we don’t need a new generation, absolutely not. This generation is still young and they could play in 2006 for sure, and most of them in 2008," stressed Eriksson.

"Beckham is 29 so, at 31, he will be even better. It’s too early to talk about a new generation," the coach went on.

"If I should pick the squad for the World Cup today, I should pick more or less the same 23."

As a result, there will be few changes in the squad picked for the World Cup qualifiers against Austria and Poland in September.

Ferdinand’s eight-month suspension for missing a drugs test will not yet be over, although Eriksson will be hoping that another defender, Jonathan Woodgate, will have finally shaken off his injury curse.