LONDON, England - David Beckham, the world's most famous footballer has once again been hugging the headlines nowadays here in soccer mad London.

His handlers have capitalized on the football story starved off season and they are grinning from ear to ear as they see David and his wife Victoria on the front pages of the tabloids.

Beckham's much awaited move to the LA Galaxy in the Major League Soccer has fuelled all these frenzies. The Americans have finally tasted Beckhamania as the 32 year-old former England captain touched down the LA airport and introduced to thousands of Galaxy fans at their home stadium, the Depot Centre in Carlson, California.

With all the hype and wealth connected to the Beckham brand, I was really surprised not to find a single portrait of the former Real Madrid and Manchester United midfielder in a sport memorabilia shop in Ashford Kent.

I went shopping at the famous Ashford shopping centre in Asford, Kent two weeks ago. Ashford is a fantastic shopping Mecca for shopoholics who love bargains. The area is huge and the design looks like a giant Arabian tent.

Anyway, I found a little shop for sports memorabilia in one corner. I was so excited to find so much stuff that could make every sport fans salivate endlessly. Immediately I looked for a photo of David Beckham. I have been a fan of Becks since he barged into the conciousness of English football.

There were endless portraits of football legends, boxing icons, golfing wonders and even ageing movie stars. Lots of them were signed and with expensive prize tags. The unsigned photos have reasonable prizes.

I scanned all the photos and to my surprise I could not find a single Beckham photo, except for one where he was with five other Manchester United players. I thought his portraits or signed photos sold like hotcakes that was why I could not find any. Then I asked the shop assistant, `Where the hell is Becks?'

He politely said that since Becks wife Victoria had a tussle with a shop assistant over David's signed photos they have not sold any of his pictures. He added that they did not want that incident to happen again, although it happened in a different shop.

BUT WHAT REALLY HAPPENED?

In March 2001, according to a report from The Times, Victoria went shopping in another shopping paradise in Kent, the Bluewater shopping centre with his mother and baby son Brooklyn. They went inside the GT Recollections, sports memorabilia shop owned by Timothy and Glynis MacManus.

According to the reports Victoria went into an outburst upon seeing signed photos of her famous husband David being sold in the shop. She rapped at the shop assistant and declared that the signatures fake and asked them not to sell them to the public. The tabloids got hold of the story sensationalized it.

The shop owners sued Victoria for the `hurt and damage' of her remaks about the authenticity of the photograph signed by her hubby. The case however did not go farther as Victoria apologized for her remarks and paid a sum of £155,000 as settlement. Timothy and Glynis MacManus accepted the settlement and proved that the signed photos they were selling were genuine and were obtained from respected sources.

This incident earned a few pounds for the MacManus couple but cost them a lot of money from the Beckham brand. It cost a few quid of pocket money for Victoria and some trips to the courts. But the real losers are the thousands of Beckhamaniacs who troop to these kinds of shops to get a piece of their idol.

With Becks now having his `early retirement' with the LA Galaxy, his fans here in England will just be contented waiting for him play in the national team.

TRUE LEGENDS

I failed to get a Beckham photo but I ended up getting four legends portraits to be given to my lucky readers at the end of next month. Any portraits of Pele, Maradona, George Best, Franz Beckenbauer will be given to a lucky soccer fan if ever he or she do not want the England shirt. (Read the Bend It ad)

The portraits are of course not signed. A signed photo of which ever of the four former soccer stars are priceless. It would cost more than this website.

A true soccer fan should know something about these four legends that I have mentioned earlier. When I was younger, I wanted to name my children Edson, Diego, George or Franz. When I became older I realized that having the names these great legends will only give pressure to children. God Bless

Comments (3) >>

RON said:

Cheers guys! I really like Becks, he has great skill and a really great personality. Not only that, his attitude towards the game and his undying love for representing his country is really inspiring! Becks was not automatically born with the amazing skill of bending in his free kicks, he is one of those players who dreamt and worked hard in order to fulfill their ambitions of becoming a great footballer, his unending desire and incredible work ethic made him what he is today. I hope that some of those qualities would rub-off on our future football stars...

July 21, 2007

krammy said:

i'm a big fan of becks but i think it's too much to talk a lot about him... we missed so many things in/about football because some are ovethrown by this beckahm issues... cheers!!!!!!!! please do our country... no, country's football to be at least be on the line... even in news papers (local), football is quite left out... can anybody in the position do something about that? what i am pointing out is that, it's really nice and absolutely amazing and grate to have our own.. i'm not into competing the other countries, but to let the world know that we are not just the #1 corrupt country in Asia... at least in football we are not corrupt, i hope. this will, f course, be evidentl shown according to the development prior proposalsd and projects of the people and organizations/associations responsible... thanks guys!!!!!!!!!!!

July 21, 2007

reddevil said:

Hey Jack, Interesting piece about Becks. Theres so many stories out there. I am pretty sure his lawyers or solicitors (as what you call them in jolly old England) will have a field day taking people to court on authenticity issues. Regarding idols, I 'll email you what my kids names are..hehehe. Anyway, my personal favorite is Maradona. Also Pele of course but I didnt get to see too many footages, also the case with George Best. Who even Pele said is the greatest ever. But really, maradona was as good as you will ever get. Unbelievable is the only way I can describe that goal against england (the second one, lol). Cheers!

July 20, 2007

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