‘ICON CORRODED BY CELEBRITY'

Last updated : 27 April 2003 By Editor

This and the above from The Sunday Times:

He wasn’t on the team sheet, it wasn’t even certain he would play any part. But when the show ended, it was he who had stolen it. Like the principal actor, he stood at the centre of the stage and took his bow after the others had left. His chest bare, his arms outstretched; David Beckham’s need for public approval never seemed as great.

The photographs were terrific and filled the newspapers. Just as the searing free kick was testimony to true quality, the after-match pictures reflected what he has become: the prince of superstardom. But this celebrity corrodes. So entwined have his worlds of football and fame become, there is no longer any certainty about what we see.

When he swaps his shirt with Zinedine Zidane, is it another unconscious move in the celebrity game? Is the jump on to the back of a celebrating teammate an expression of joy or a practised pose for all those photographers? Does he seek to be one of the world’s best footballers or merely the best-known? Doesn’t he realise that when he bares his chest, he bares his soul? Almost certainly not. For he, too, struggles to know who he is. Player or icon? His £5m annual salary rewards him for both his football and his image. Manchester United value him at £40m when as a mere footballer, he is worth less than half that. But the pop-star looks and the film-star lifestyle chip away at his normality. They earn him millions but cannot guarantee him what he most wants: his place in the Manchester United team.

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