Beckham's search for a post-soccer role is over.

You mean his "performance" in King Arthur didn't kickstart a career in Hollywood?

I am not British and I usually only read the sports/football sections in English newspapers and so whenever I stumble upon tabloid sites that might feature a Beckham "story" it never stops to amaze me of all the negative and nasty comments coming from people below the "article" seeming to vent their anger and hatred towards David Beckham and his family. And it is not just in the comment section of some silly article, but something which has been going on for years now and yeah, I know that Beckham has not exactly been hiding away from the media, but still the guy seems to bring out the worst in many people.
Even among the Manchester United fanbase, I have noticed over the time that more and more are trying their very best to dismiss David Beckham as just some "mediocre" "pretty boy" who got lucky from time to time on the field and then decided to throw it all away by marriying a Spice Girl and end up searching for more fame in Hollywood.

As an "example", the first video that showed up, when I searched for David Beckham and no less than a second looking around in the comment section, this is the first of many replies that showed up:"he was more like a medium footballer. You cannot compare him with Ronaldo, Robinho, Roberto Carlos, Zidane, Cannavaro"
(It was not from the video below)

When I think of David Beckham the footballer, I think of one of my earliest and most important sport idols. One that boosted my interest to the game and made me want to play football as well, and not the "silly" media figure that many seem to love make fun of, either because of his wife or his voice or "acting" abilities in some crappy Hollywood movie, but one of the biggest reasons why I became a fan of Manchester United and Premier League.
For me, Beckham brought out much more on the field than just the the many stunning freekicks or perfectly well placed 40-yard passes that kept feeding his teammates game after game, season after season, (and even in his late 30s he would prove that he could still deliver the goods) and what he might have lacked in raw or natural talent such as dribbling, heading, or pace, he would make up by becoming one of the most hardworking and dedicated players on the team, backed up by an incredible strong driven mentality and desire to always win the next game and even more trophies.

For a while he really was one of Manchester United's best players, specially between the years of 1998-2001, hell he was even the runner up for the 1998-99 Ballon d'Or (beaten only by Ronaldo, the legendary one) and I guess he did not get nominated just because of his looks or his fame, but the fact that without him and his lethal long passes towards Yorke and Cole, the 1998-99 treble would more than likely never happen.
And if he had not played like a possesed man for the English national team might against Greece, they would never get to the World Cup of 2002.
Sadly things kind of went the wrong way, and fast after that as I remember he got a horrible injury against Deportivo La Coruna in the Champions League 2001-02 quarter finals (I think), and the whole pressure surrounding him to get back into shape towards the World Cup of 2002 that summer was immense, and it must have taken a lot of strenght from him, as he for a big part did not look like the same player during the 2002-03 season, even having Fergie replacing him by putting Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in his place on the wide side, and things went from bad to worse as the father/son realationship he seemed to have towards Alex Ferguson got hurt badly in winter of 03 after a heavy loss against Arsenal and one that never seemed to get recovered, which for me and a lot of fans put a big downer on the whole joyful celebration of reclaiming the Premier League throne back from Arsenal in may of 2003, as Beckham soon was to be sold to Real Madrid within the next few weeks.

Sure, Ronaldo would eventually go on and replace Beckham as the new big star and name and then some, but still the loss of Beckham really hurt and while United went on to win everything and more with Cristiano, I never was any sad or emotional when he left for Madrid in summer of 2009, as he seemed like someone who loved and put himself first, and that his stay in Manchester was just business as usual, where as David seemed like a guy who truly loved the club and the fans, and to hear and read that many United fans do not even rate him as a club legend, that makes me just sad.

Something I have really missed during the last disastrous seasons after Fergie retired, is the temper/aggression and backing your teammates up when they are in trouble. Something which Wayne Rooney last season was a shocking evidence of, as I think Memhpis Depay got brutally tackled and now if that had been Vidic, Keane, Stam, Cantona or Bryan Robson that fella would have been in some serious trouble, but instead the camera showed the very next second that Wayne Rooney, the club captain was sharing a joke/laughing along with the oppnonent who took Depay out, almost like he did him a favor.
Back in 2006 or 07 I remember that somebody tried to do the same to Ronaldo with a viscious tackle, and seconds afterwards a furious Rooney would run like a maniac and launch himself towards the opposite player, as he had the look of a killer in his eyes, and made sure to imediately stood up for his teammate and say something like: "You better watch your back for the rest of the game".

One of my favorite little stories about Beckham and this is I think from around 1997-98 when Manchester United had been playing against a very bulliying Chelsea side at Stamford Bridge and where Dennis Wise along with a few other players where having a go at (I think) Nicky Butt (these two seemed to have a bit of history, as they often would have a go at each other, specially one or two years later when Butt lost it at kicked the shit out of Wise, and ended up with a red card and United losing out 5-0) and well, Wise is not exactly a player who is unkown to start or pick up a fight, Alex Ferguson I think once said this of the aggressive midfielder: "He could start a row in an empty house.".
Anyway, the first player to come along and back his pal and teammate up was David Beckham, and knowing they where about to get their asses kicked in, he still stood his ground against much older players and was to have said something like: "This is really happening isnt it?".
Not sure what really happened afterwards, but there was some bad blood going on between United and Chelsea in the 1997-2001 period, as I remember Scholes, Butt, the Neville brothers, Beckham and even Sheringham playing very aggressivly against Chelsea and the cards where flying in those matches.

You're still left with one of the best English players of the past 40-50 years.

The sad thing about this and so many other great English players of the Premier League era, is that their legacy seems to be far too often dismissed or talked down on, because of the lack of success/trophies the national team during the years of 1998-2006 never won and that was a period where they were gifted with an extremely talented bunch of players, and now I am not sure of how many of todays English players would even have a chance of being put on the bench.
The British media loves hyping and building up certain players, but when things go wrong, it is all about dragging them down as low as possible.

probably the best long range passer and crosser of the ball perhaps in England's history

Man Utd sure could have desperately used somebody with Beckham's crossing skills, as I remember a certain horrible David Moyes "classic" where I think about 70 or 80s long passes was just thrown into the opposition box, and not one of them ended up as a goal scoring opportunity and I kind of wished that in the second half a 37 year old Beckham would come in, put on the red shirt and show how its done properly.