A Son of the Rock

How to explain the move of David Beckham to Paris Saint Germain?

It can’t be on footballing grounds. He has been playing for six years in the US, where the standard isn’t the best, he’s 37 years old and plays in midfield where it’s hard to hide. Okay, he admits himself he never had any pace to speak of, but still. How many minutes playing time do you reckon he will have for PSG between now and season’s end?

In any case I have always thought he was more than a touch overhyped as a footballer. He could take a free kick and put in a cross but rarely dominated a game in the way great players do. As for his most famous feat in England – scoring from his own half – that’s not even unusual. Chic Charnley did it in a Dumbarton shirt, and it’s a regular occurrence at Gayfield (wind-assisted of course.)

The news programme I first saw this on yesterday implied Beckham was a big football name and mentioned, condescendingly, that PSG had also recently signed players like Zlatan Ibrahimovic. As far as the present football scene is concerned Zlatan is a much bigger star than Beckham – and more valued.

For some unfathomable reason Beckham is still assumed to have a superstar’s lustre. PSG can only have signed him to promote their global brand and sell jerseys.

In football, British football anyway, the phrase “selling the jerseys” means to make a mistake that costs your team – a goal, two points, the match. PSG may have scored an own goal here.