by Noleen Wyatt-Jones

Created on: March 25, 2008

One of the main reasons for David Beckham's continuing popularity is his wife Victoria. As the worlds most popular and perfect celebrity couple consistent media coverage has catapulted the pair to iconic superstar status and in some ways both are now better known for being celebrity icons rather than for the careers that got them there in the first place. Whether David is as good a footballer as his current status would suggest is unlikely, but he was in the right place at the right time and of course he married the right girl and now the Beckham name sells everything from aftershave to razors and his face(and body) adorns many an advertising page.

What element of the David Beckham phenomena is down to his footballing ability? There is no doubt that his talent was recognized early on when he was a youth prodigy who ultimately ended up one of Sir Alex Ferguson's shining lights at Manchester United where initially he could not put a foot wrong and was pivotal in the team's continuing success. His footballing ability was almost superseded by his romancing of Spice Girl Victoria Adams and even when his popularity took a brief dip when he was sent off after a childish foul in the World Cup Quarter Final against Argentina it wasn't long before 'Goldenballs' captured our hearts again.

But do we necessarily want to see our footballers on the front page of newspapers instead of in the sporting pages? probably not and as it became clear that his career was being dictated more and more by what his wife wanted, the cracks in his relationship with Sir Alex Ferguson became more apparent. It was his subsequent move to Barcelona which really started his descent into the footballing wilderness as some of the shine came off his game and more damaging news stories began to emerge. Meanwhile other English rising stars were eager to take his place in the national team and it soon became clear that David Beckham was not the footballing god we had previously believed.

His recent move to Los Angeles to play for LA Galaxy may well be financially lucrative but has taken him further and further away from the English game he professes to love so much. He is now set to achieve his 100th cap for England but will not wear the captain's armband and it is unlikely that he will play the full 90 minutes which all in all is a disappointing end to what looked set to be a golden career.

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