There aren’t many players that can boast title winning medals from England, Spain, France and USA, over 100 caps for England having captained his national side for 6 years playing in three World Cups and two European Championships (as well as giving Diego Simeone a kicking and living to tell the tale), being a co-owner of not one but two professional football clubs (Salford City and Inter Miami), being the victim of Alex Ferguson’s right foot when he somehow kicked a spare boot right at Beckham’s face, and of course marrying a Spice Girl in-between just for good measure.
Yes, it’s safe to say there haven’t been many English players to make such an impact on world football as David Beckham did ever since he emerged from the famous Class of ‘92 and announced his greatness on a global scale following that infamous goal from the halfway line against Wimbledon and a poor misfortunate Neil Sullivan in goal - which makes the task of trying to emulate Beckham’s playing style and finding a modern day replica that bit more challenging but nevertheless, we take to Football Manager 2021 to find the next David Beckham among England’s future generation of talented midfielders.
The rules are simple - any modern day replica identified must be of the same nationality as the legend at hand, and must be aged 23 or under in order to qualify and earn the mantle as the next big thing. Are we confident that we can somehow piece together the key attributes to find ourselves the next “Goldenballs”? #WeGoAgain.
by MaddFM
“True winners are relentless. The very best players compete against themselves to become as good as they can be. They have to be dragged off the training ground.”
Sir Alex Ferguson on David Beckham’s training & work ethic.
Posh Spice. Adidas Predator. Sarongs. Number 7. Pepsi adverts. Red Cards. Free Kicks. Dodgy Haircuts. It’s safe to say that David Beckham was and still is an iconic football figure in world football, and although he was often more commonly known for his image and non-footballing exploits, you can’t get away from the fact that the man was quite simply a brilliant footballer with unrivalled technique and ball distribution, as well as an incredibly intelligent football brain and ingenious on-field football vision which one could easily argue was up there among the greatest of all time 🐐.
David Beckham scored 127 goals during his 21 seasons at Man Utd, Real Madrid, LA Galaxy, Milan and PSG. Not bad for a winger right?
He assisted 202 goals in the same period.
It’s easy to think back to some of Man Utd’s great goalscorers during their golden era wherein the likes of Paul Scholes, Andy Cole, Dwight Yorke, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Teddy Sheringham and Ruud van Nistelrooy regularly topped the club/league scoring charts, however during this time one thing remained constant: Beckham, eternal provider, crosser extraordinaire, pinger of long balls and the best right foot the Premier League has ever seen - so much of those Strikers’ and Manchester United’s long term success resulted from Beckham’s consistent lethality both in terms of creating headed goals from crosses, executing pinpoint passes to ignite counter attacks, repeat perfection from set-pieces and popping up with the odd humdinger from time to time, which means whoever we identify as having the potential to be the next Becks carries a fairly heavy burden (let alone having to find a popstar to marry). Who will it be?
Rewind ⏪
The year 2000. Pulp are getting ready for a big meet up they’ve been planning since 1995. Millennium bug is in the mud. A 26 year old Beckham has no idea that Victoria wants him to move to Spain, or that he will soon score a free-kick for England against Greece that will echo down through the ages. Championship Manager 00/01 clearly emphasizes Beckham’s all round ability as a Right Midfielder and to find his modern day counterpart we will take his strongest attributes from that version and plug them into Football Manager 2021; now we wait..
🔍 Passing
🔍 Crossing
🔍 Flair
🔍 Vision
🔍 Free Kicks
🔍 English
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Is this a surprise? If we are looking specifically at Position, Ability, Passing/Vision and most importantly his Set Piece ability in terms of Free Kicks and Corner taking - James Maddison is the standout candidate as having the tools and potential to emulate Beckham’s success for club and country both as a provider as well as a goalscorer. Already lighting up the Premier League and getting international recognition, the next 10 years will hopefully see Maddision become a household name domestically and internationally, and Leicester will need to continue to finish highly and almost overachieve if they hope to keep Maddision at the club and match his ability and ambition. Trent Alexander-Arnold was most certainly a close candidate especially with his Set Piece quality, however positionally there are definitely some differences and it’s unlikely we will ever see TAA move away from his position as a Wing-Back. On the blue side of Manchester Phil Foden gave us a difficult decision, however there was one main problem: he is left footed! Beckham’s right foot is a national treasure and therefore poor Phil cannot be in contention based on his stronger side. In terms of slightly more outside bets with definite potential to play the Beckham role - Ryan Kent is a definite shout albeit with room to improve in all areas, while Norwich’s Kieran Dowell is an excellent underdog if like me you fancy a challenge. For now though it’s James Maddision who is a ready-made replacement and therefore he gets the #WeStreamFM seal of approval as the next David Beckham.
Thanks for reading,
Interested in writing a Guest Author piece for WeStreamFM or have a football icon you would like to try and replicate? Drop us a DM or feel free to reach out to MaddFM directly.
