lunes, 20 de mayo de 2013
sábado, 18 de mayo de 2013
PHOTOS: David Beckham Tearful Farewell In Paris…
The 38-year-old former England captain leaves the field in tears after helping his team to victory in Paris.
A tearful David Beckham has received a standing ovation as he left the pitch in what appeared to be his final game as a professional footballer.
The retiring midfielder captained Paris St Germain in the team’s 3-1 victory over Brest in Paris.
As he walked off the field in tears, Beckham embraced his teammates and thousands of fans rose to their feet to cheer.
The 38-year-old announced his retirement this week, with coach Carlo Ancelotti confirming he would play in the club’s final match at the Parc des Princes this season.
A statement from PSG on the eve of the game confirmed the former England captain would also lead the team on to the field.
“David Beckham will wear the captain’s armband tonight during his last match at the Parc des Princes,” the statement read.
“A tribute will be paid to British midfielder who announced this week he would take his retirement at the end of this season.”
PSG clinched their first Ligue 1 title in 19 years following a 1-0 win at Lyon last weekend.
It meant Beckham, who joined PSG in the winter on a short-term deal, has won league titles in four different countries – England, Spain, the US and France.
PSG will wrap up their season away to Lorient next weekend, although Ancelotti has refused to confirm whether Beckham will play in that match.
David Beckham walks off pitch in tears after last home game for Paris Saint-Germain
PARIS — David Beckham hugged his teammates with tears in his eyes, then walked off the pitch to a standing ovation — for the last time in front of a home crowd at a football game.
A clearly emotional Beckham was mobbed by his teammates on the field when coach Carlo Ancelotti decided to substitute him in the 81st minute of a 3-1 win over Brest on Saturday, giving him a customary sendoff in his last home game before retiring. Even goalkeeper Salvatore Sirigu ran out to congratulate the former England captain on his career, while Brazil winger Lucas bowed in reverence.
“To end my career in front of a crowd like that, with players like that, it’s very special,” Beckham said, adding that emotions had already started overpowering him before he was taken off.
“It started about 20 minutes before that, to be honest. I started thinking and then, you know, I couldn’t concentrate by then, and it was difficult,” he said. “You know, you try to hold the emotion back because it is what it is, but it’s difficult.”
As the crowd rose to its feet — including former President Nicolas Sarkozy — Beckham applauded in return as he walked off the pitch slowly before being replaced by Ezequiel Lavezzi.
“I want to say thank you to everybody in Paris. To my teammates, to the staff, to the fans,” Beckham told the fans. “It’s been very special to finish my career here. It could not have been any more special.”
With PSG already having clinched the French league title, Beckham announced Thursday that he is retiring at the end of the season. He has yet to say whether he intends to play in PSG’s last game away against Lorient on May 26.
“I just feel that it’s the right time. I feel that I’ve achieved everything that I could in my career. I wanted to go out as a champion,” Beckham said. “I’ve finished my career in a team that has treated me like I’ve been here for 10 years.
PSG coach Carlo Ancelotti said it was unlikely that Beckham would feature in the last game of the season away to Lorient on May 26.
“We have to decide, but I don’t think he will play. He will come with the team but I don’t think he will play ... a plastic pitch is difficult for a 38-year-old,” Ancelotti said, before praising Beckham’s impact on world football.
“He will miss the world of football because he showed a good image every time, really professional. It was a fantastic evening for him. He will have a very good memory of this night,” Ancelotti said. “When you finish, when you stop, you have memories of all the years.”
Ancelotti joked that Beckham should have scored.
“I spoke with David and told him in my last game I scored two goals,” Ancelotti said “I said to him ‘Maybe tonight you’ll score two goals’ - but maybe he didn’t have my quality.”
While Zlatan Ibrahimovic again was PSG’s main figure on the field, scoring twice, this game was Beckham’s moment from the start.
He was given the captain’s armband for the first time since joining the team on the last day of the January transfer window, and was given a rousing reception at Parc des Princes before the game, with fans breaking out into chants of “Merci, David” (Thank You, David) when his name was read out over the stadium speaker.
“After 22 years of playing football I’m going to take a few months to enjoy time with my family,” Beckham said, before adding that he still wants to stay involved with PSG. “It’s been a very special place for me.
He showed he can still contribute on the field as well, setting up midfielder Blaise Matuidi for 2-0 with a well-taken corner in the 31st minute.
And when it came time to leave the pitch, chants of “Dav-eed Beckham, Dav-eed Beckham” broke out among the French fans as the PSG players trotted over to embrace him. Even Brest’s Charlison Benschop — who had scored the team’s consolation goal a minute earlier — walked over to shake his hand.
“It’s a historic moment,” the stadium announcer intoned as Beckham was substituted. He said “Dav-eeeed” and the 44,983-strong crowd roared back “Beeeeeck-ham!”
As Beckham walked slowly off with his hair uncharacteristically bedraggled, his mother, Sandra, also wiped away a tear in the stands.
Beckham said he had invited 25 people to watch him: “friends, family, everyone that’s been with me throughout my career.”
His replacement Ezequiel Lavezzi, gave Beckham a bear hug and then cheekily ruffled the fashion icon’s hair. Beckham immediately swept it back into place.
After blowing a kiss to wife Victoria and his children in the stands as he walked off, there was time for one more hug — this one a bit longer from Ancelotti — before he sat down on the bench, maybe for the last time.
The game brought a stronger security presence, with about 150 riot police forming a ring inside the stadium in the second half. The show of force follows Monday night’s riots at Trocadero plaza, where a celebration to mark the French title turned violent.
PSG clinched the league title last weekend, making Beckham the first English player to win the championship in four different countries after title success with Manchester United, Real Madrid and the Los Angeles Galaxy.
Saturday’s match was Beckham’s 14th since joining PSG, and his fifth start.
After the final whistle, his teammates hoisted Beckham off the ground and repeatedly tossed him up in the air, putting a smile back on his face.
The league title celebrations then kicked in as the lights were turned off, as light sticks were held up and the crowd broke out into song. Fireworks then flew into the night sky — accompanied by an “Ole!” as each one went off.
One after the other, the players then walked out onto a makeshift podium and thanked the crowd.
When it came to Beckham’s turn to climb onto the podium, the Beatles song ‘Hello, Goodbye’ rang out as the stadium’s big screen beamed pictures of Beckham’s short PSG career and flashed up another message of thanks.
Draped in the English flag, it was Beckham’s turn to offer some final words to the crowd.
“Merci, Paris,” Beckham said. “I’m very sad to be leaving, but thank you.
Read more at http://www.toledoblade.com/sports/2013/05/18/David-Beckham-walks-off-pitch-in-tears-after-last-home-game-for-Paris-Saint-Germain.html#e6MBARpEkLFVRRCO.99
jueves, 16 de mayo de 2013
David Beckham Retires From Football
Former England captain David Beckham has announced that he is to retire from professional football.
The 38-year-old - who has played for Manchester United, Real Madrid, AC Milan and Los Angeles Galaxy - is turning down the offer of an extended one-year deal at his current club Paris Saint-Germain (PSG).
After winning the French title with the club, Beckham said he wanted to finish his career on a high.
The midfielder spoke exclusively to his former Manchester United teammate and long-time friend Gary Neville for Sky Sports News about his decision.
He said: "Over the years when I've seen players retire, when you ask them they said 'you'll know when you're ready'... I think I know when I'm ready.
"It's difficult because I still think I can play at the top level ... but I've always said to myself I want to go out on top."
He admitted that he had found it difficult when his life as a global celebrity occasionally took the focus away from his football career.
He said: "Sometimes people have looked at certain other things that have gone on throughout my career, sometimes that's overshadowed what I've done on the pitch.
"As much as I say that doesn't hurt me, of course it does.
"I'm a footballer that has played for some of the biggest clubs in the world, played with some of the best players in the world, played under some of the biggest and best managers and achieved almost everything in football."
Asked when he decided the time was right to call time on his career, he joked: "Probably when Messi was running past me in that home game!"
He has just two more matches left at PSG, where his salary has been going to a children's charity.
The retirement brings to an end a glittering career. As well as winning league titles in Spain, Italy and England, he also holds the record for making 115 international appearances as an outfield player.
There were highs and lows in Beckham's international career. He was blamed for England's elimination from the 1998 World Cup for a red card against Argentina, but scored the winning goal against the same team in Japan four years later.
He has four children, Brooklyn, Romeo, Cruz and Harper, with his wife, Spice Girl turned fashion designer Victoria Beckham.
Tributes from friends and colleagues in the game, but also from celebrities and even the Prime Minister serve as a reminder of how Beckham's fame spread beyond the football world.
David Cameron said he had enjoyed a "fantastic career as an outstanding footballer and an outstanding ambassador"
Gary Lineker tweeted: "David Beckham has retired. A wonderful player, global superstar and a magnificent ambassador for England and football."
England manager Roy Hodgson told Sky Sports News: "I wish him well in the future whatever he chooses to do and I personally hope that will be in football.
"David is a man of many talents and a lot of people now will be wanting him for different jobs and roles, some of which could take him away from us in football.
"But I'm rather hoping we'll be able to keep him in football because we can really benefit from his experience, we can really benefit from his charisma and we certainly benefit from the magnificent past he has had as a football player."
Beckham has taken up an increasing number of high profile roles off the pitch.
He is currently an ambassador for Chinese football, and last month partnered with Sky to champion the benefits of youth sport
Beckham Announces Retirement From Soccer
When David Beckham broke a bone in his left foot before the 2002 World Cup, Tony Blair, then the British Prime Minister, interrupted a cabinet meeting to express his concern about England’s suddenly uncertain chances. Tabloid newspapers ran photos of Beckham’s injured foot on Page 1 and asked readers to lay their hands on the picture in an attempt at mass civic healing.
On Thursday, Beckham announced his impending retirement from soccer at 38, never the best player in the world but unsurpassed in his era as a cultural phenomenon.
The sport has long had global stars, but none whose careers emerged so fortuitously at the nexus of technology, reality television and celebrity culture. Beckham was the athlete with the most crossover appeal at the moment when everyone could watch together, online or via satellite.
Beckham was not merely an athlete; he was an international brand that smartly fused a handsomeness that bordered on beauty with athleticism, marketing savvy and an eager embrace of the role of pop idol, unsurpassed in his era as a cultural phenomenon.
He was as likely to appear in Vogue as in Sports Illustrated. He was as popular appearing in underwear advertisements as in a soccer uniform. He was appreciated by working-class fans as well as gay fans. His wife was a member of the Spice Girls, and his precise passes and curling free kicks inspired a film, “Bend It Like Beckham,” serving as a metaphor for triumph over social restriction.
“David Beckham is soccer plus sex; those are the only two things that sell in the world, aren’t they?” said Stefan Szymanski, a British co-author of the book “Soccernomics” and a professor of sports management at the University of Michigan.
“What Beckham sold was athleticism or soccer to straight men and sex to women and gay men,” Szymanski said. “He did that rather spectacularly well. I’m guessing he’s the prettiest player the game has ever had. He’s the Marilyn Monroe of soccer. Everybody would want to be next to David Beckham.”
Despite his looks and talent and adulation, though, Beckham was not a prima donna on the field. He was considered to have given everything for his club teams and the England national team, winning titles with some of the world’s most popular clubs, Manchester United of England’s Premier League, Real Madrid of Spain’s La Liga and Paris St.-Germain of France’s Ligue 1.
His name and reputation alone brought newfound international respect for professional soccer in the United States during his six seasons and two championships with the Los Angeles Galaxy of Major League Soccer.
And, in the era of the Internet and satellite television, Beckham’s career proved hugely influential in the swelling interest of European soccer in Asia and elsewhere around the globe.
“I don’t think it’s unfair to say he put M.L.S. on the map,” said Bruce Arena, who coached Beckham to two league titles with the Galaxy. “And he’s certainly one of the chief people responsible for worldwide attention of the game. He’s one of the most competitive people I ever coached. As he got to the end of his career, he didn’t have the legs he wanted to have, but he had a bigger heart than anyone on the field.”
Beckham, who made 115 appearances with the English national team, did have his less felicitous moments. Infamously, he committed an impetuous foul that got him ejected from a 1998 World Cup match against Argentina. And Landon Donovan, the American star and former teammate with the Galaxy, criticized Beckham’s early commitment to M.L.S. in a book called “The Beckham Experiment” by Grant Wahl, a senior writer at Sports Illustrated.
Still, Beckham’s global appeal went undiminished.
“I think he’s the most famous athlete in the world,” Wahl said. While a similar claim could be made about the soccer star Lionel Messi, the Olympic sprinting champion Usain Bolt and the golfer Tiger Woods, Wahl said: “Beckham has a celebrity component the other guys don’t. There’s a multiplier effect. If you play the old game, ‘How many people on earth recognize this sports star?’ I think Beckham is recognized by more people than anyone else.”
In addition to the typical mob scenes in his home country or the city where he was currently playing — which are standard for soccer stars like Messi of Argentina, Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal or Neymar of Brazil — Beckham’s worldwide reach often seemed limitless.
In Tokyo, a chocolate Beckham statue that stood nearly 10 feet tall was featured in a downtown department store after the 2002 World Cup. In Australia, mere speculation that Beckham might be interested in playing in the country’s league prompted wealthy businessmen to consider helping finance what would have surely been an outrageously expensive transfer.
miércoles, 15 de mayo de 2013
Beckham claims league title No 10 as PSG win Ligue 1 crown with victory over Lyon
David Beckham has provisionally won a fourth different top flight winners' medal after PSG beat Lyon 1-0 to claim the Ligue 1 title.
Beckham, who has now become the first Englishman to claim a league medal in four separate countries, came on as a substitute, while Jeremy Menez scored the only goal of the game for Carlo Ancelotti's side.
PSG's title will not, however, be confirmed until a league disciplinary panel meets to decide whether to impose a points deduction following allegations sporting director Leonardo barged a referee
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