When Beckham went to Spain: Power, Stardom & Real Madrid
Extracts
Michael Joseph Hardback • 30 September 2004 • £16.99
Extracted from Chapter 7, Divine Intervention
"They cut an odd couple that June in 2003, posing in front of
millions of viewers around the world, from Madrid to Beijing -
the lean
young blond with his flowing locks and engaging smile next to the
paunchy septuagenarian, bloated and wrinkled like an overripe fig,
struggling to contain a look of wishing to be somewhere else. But
the twinning of David Beckham and Alfredo Di Stefano was as necessary
as it was contrived, designed as an image that summarized Real
Madrid's past, present and future in a seamless bridge across a
history of glory and greatness which no other football club in
the world could match. I don't know to what extent Beckham even
then really saw his destiny in the predilections, inclinations,
habits and beliefs of someone old enough to be his grandfather,
who had lived in another country, another era. But Di Stefano had
become immersed in the history of Real Madrid and Spain, and Beckham
had come to that club and that country. I'd been chasing the shadows
of both men through time and space in ways that brought back memories
and helped me look beyond the razzmatazz. Half a century earlier,
the arrival of Di Stefano as a Real Madrid player marked a new
departure in the history of the club, ushering in a period that
would see the conquest of five consecutive European Cups. It was
a curious beginning for me too, 1953, the year I was born, in the
capital of Spain."
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