THE BECKHAM ROADSHOW

Good ole 'golden balls', as he's oft referred to by his wife, the ex-Spice girl, Victoria Beckham, is in Sydney.
He came with his football team, LA Galaxy, the team who've paid an enormous 250 million dollars over three years for the services of the aforementioned footballer.

The man is arguably a whole industry in himself with his multi million dollar sponorship deals with Adidas, Rolex and countless other brands whose pockets know no depth to have the man advertise their product. (Word is he's being courted to sell sand to the Arabs...).

Anyway, clotheshorse aside, he's here for a football game - an exhibition match between his team, LA Galaxy, and Sydney FC. It's been joked that the game is actually between Sydney FC and David Beckham, hoho, such is the excitement over the superstars imminent arrival.

The game was played live on free to air Channel Ten (which interestingly, is more than can be said for the recent rugby world cup which had all but the semis and final, excepting the Australian games, delayed..!)

And as a testament to the man's pulling power, consider the following:-

Football is almost an underground sport here in Oz and Sydney FC's last game against Queensland Roar (far out - such monikers!) drew a crowd of 8 thousand or so.

Ticket sales for this game have exceeded EIGHTY thousand, and probably 70,000 or so are there just to see David Beckham. Hilariously, in a play on words of the film, Bend it like Beckham, two young fillies held aloft a placard on which was written - "Bend Me Beckham". Hoho, you go girls, don't hold back (where's my Beckham mask?)

(Even yours truly is writing about it right here on this humble blog-type thing).

The talk was all about whether Beckham would score; whether he would even play the full 90 minutes (a reference to his unfortunate injury streak since joining the Italian superteam, before he went to America). Well, score he did, in the most stylish of ways, in an almost trademark fashion from a free kick. Over the wall of men it flew and curved beautifully to escape the keepers stretched arms.

The spectators went ballistic.

Sydney FC won the game in the end 5-3 but the general concensus was that the event (which due to Beckham's involvement, was what it had become) was a huge success and the word is that interest in the round ball sport could be exploited and developed purely on the back of this game.

As for David, well, reports are that he has conducted himself impeccably, going as far to visit (on the sly) a young fan, afflicted with cancer. He has been gracious and appreciative of his position when appearing in public and has insisted, despite being able to afford, and assumed he would do so, fivestar hotels etc. on staying with his teammates in...lesser accommodation.

For my part, I have always liked the man, and have never been an exponent of the kind of patronizing insults that have so been a part of his life from the jealous and envious.
Such spite-filled persons, whose vitriol is quite obviously borne out of a deep-seated envy and personal shame that they can't reach such heights themselves, make a living out of cutting down (or attempting to) those who did indeed rise above the ordinary.
David Beckham is one such man. He is married, seemingly in love with his wife, dotes on his children, and just happens to be one of the best footballers in current play - as evidenced by the trademark free kick finding the back of the net.

A true champion is he and I wish him all the success he can handle.