Beckham envy?
Pini Zahavi, the Israeli agent of Rio Ferdinand and close confidant of Sven Goran Eriksson has given an interview to hebrew-language newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, in which he claims that Englands exit at the quarter-final stages of last years world cup was due to key players being jealous of David Beckham. The following papers have details of his comments and commentary –
Envy over Beckham led to England failure
Source: The telegraph
England face threat of an earthquake in football
Source: The Independent
McClaren will be finished if England loses, warns Zahavi
Source: The Times
Please keep in mind, when reading these stories and the countless others that will undoubtedly circulate, that these comments have been made to coincide with the England – Israel euro-qualifier. That Zahavi has a very obvious agenda. That Sven Goran Eriksson is quite capable of speaking for himself. That “super-agents” within football are known for their lack of ethics and decency and that Zahavi has guaranteed far more attention for his comments, especially from the British press, by playing the “Beckham card”. I appreciate that everyone will have their own opinion but please do remember the context.
Alexi Lalas Interview
Alexi Lalas, President of the LA Galaxy, has given a pre-season interview it contains many interesting comments amongst them was this gem -
Question: In talking about Beckham, what do you think some of the misconceptions are that he is going to bring to the game here and to the Galaxy?
Answer: He is one player, and this is not an individual sport, this is a team sport. We’re not going to win every single game every time he steps on the field. He’s not going to score goals every time he steps on the field. The reality is, there is almost no way for him to live up to the expectations that have been put on him. This is also a life that he has been living for many years now so he understands the pressure and he understands that it is very difficult for him to individually or with the team he is playing for to live up to those expectations. The most important thing for us is that when he does arrive I want him coming into a team that is already successful. I want him to come in and augment this team and make us just that much better than we already are. I don’t want him to come in and be viewed as a savior, I don’t want him to come in and have any additional pressure to where he feels he has to carry this team. If anything I want the pressure to be that he wants to make sure he continues the success that we have already had. That comes from once again having a successful first half of the season.
Shirt Sponsor
A month or so ago it was reported that Citibank and Herbalife were competing to be shirt sponsors for LA Galaxy. It has been confirmed this morning that Herbalife have been the successful bidder. Details here.
Finally, a couple of days ago I mentioned that David Beckham was featured in the April Edition of French Vogue. I would like to thank Madeleine a big fan of Becks for letting me know that the magazine contains an article on David Beckham’s impact as a style icon rather than an interview or a new photo shoot. We are working on having scans hopefully sometime tomorrow!
I think if there were jealous conflicts within the England dressing room then it was up to the manager to address them. And regarding England's exit in the World Cup I think…I don't know…because they were one man down
against a formidable opponentMarie
The extreme nature of the jealousy/England failure story doesn't make sense. I'm an England supporter, so I read player interviews, some of their books, generally pay attention to whatever's out there about the team. When they might just as easily have said nothing, the players have too frequently talked about their appreciation/fondness/respect for Becks for me to believe all of this. A John Terry interview before the World Cup was a perfect example, positive about Becks as a player and captain, and stressing how important a role he played in the dressing room, particularly with the younger players. They can't all have been instructed by the club P.R. department to paint a rosy picture, those things ring hollow sooner or later, and Terry?…can't see it at all. Anyway, its not SUCH a closed world that word wouldn't have gotten out if things had sunk to such a level.And did Zahavi mean to say the players consciously held back? In a tournament as important to each of them personally and professionally as the World Cup? That's insulting. These aren't sulking children after all. As a matter of fact I've never even seen children behave that way (and with four kids on teams through college we've seen our share of "high drama"). Kids are too competitive to "give less" during matches and they only work harder when jealousy is involved.I certainly can't see experienced professional athletes consciously switching off a lifelong competitive instinct.
I'm not an England supporter and I don't know how much truth there will be to what this Pini bloke is saying but one thing I did notice, I have to admit is that almost no one in the current England set up actually spoke up or has had anything much to say since he was dropped. I've only read support from Hargreaves, Woogdate (who really wan't in the England set up when he said it) and Owen who is currently out of the set up for an extended period. Gary Neville didn't say much but to be fair he couldn't really as he and Becks are such great mates anything he said would carry no weight and he knows it. Compare that to the list of team mates that stood up for him in Madrid, RVN, Casillas, Helguera, Salgado, Raul, Pavon, Guti etc. I'm not saying there was jealousy or not, hell I don't know but I did think there were several people who's silence was deafening when he was left out, they could have gone on record with some compliments and finished with the obligatory it's up to the boss and I support him statement but I don't recall reading anything of that sort.
That's true Syd, I wrote my comment with a touch of late night outrage. I did note the deafening silence. Believe it or not Gerrard made a comment about his disappointment early on. But nothing like the RM guys. Of course there can be jealousies and acrimony in any dressing room especially when the team's not doing well. And I've not been in England's…much to my continuing disamy
But I do draw the line at the connection to lack of endeavor at the World Cup. Other arguments aside, we haven't exactly noticed an upsurge in energetic and joyous play since! Maybe Saturday…
I guess part of the reason why I like Owen Hargreaves more is because he was one of the most vocal of the England team in support of Beckham. Here's hoping that England would do well in the qualifiers, or they would need a Hail Mary pass and with Mclaren's stuborness I don't think there would be a Beckham free kick to save them this time.Marie
Feeling too cynical lately I wasn't going to add this, but now the subject of undermining has come up, I do wonder about the timing of the story and whether it was intended to distract and undermine. With the additional negative impact, for England and our lad, being more "proof" that Becks is a "distraction" when not even on the team.It just drives some people nuts every time Becks goes through a period of good press, and magically something like this appears. GRRRR. Makes me appreciate this site for trying to edit at least the worst trash out for us…if I could just resist my own occasional google searches…:)I'm off to focus on snacks for the match instead!
WOW! There's certainly been a really fast rash of responses discrediting Zahavi, from England camp etc. I'm not reading another thing, but will wait for Anna's collection so that I can remain pleased!