In David Beckham’s glorious career, there was a moment that haunted the flamboyant midfielder forever.
That was the cruel red card that the young Becks received in the match against Argentina at the 1998 World Cup in the round of 16.
This match took place on June 30, 1998, Argentina and England stepped onto the Geoffroy-Guichard pitch in Saint-Etienne. The match became dramatic from the first minutes.
Batistuta opened the scoring for the Tango team in the 6th minute. But just 4 minutes later, Shearer brought the match back to balance.
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In the frenzy of beautiful and effective attacking football, the England team immediately scored a second goal thanks to the “prodigy” Michael Owen in the 16th minute,
but in the injury time of the first half, Zanetti equalized 2-2 for Argentina.
In the second half, England and Argentina both aimed for victory with all they had left, but in the 47th minute, Diego Simeone fouled David Beckham. The midfielder, who was playing for Inter Milan at the time, was very cunning and provocative towards his opponent. “El Cholo” tackled from behind, and when he fell down, he deliberately pushed Becks down to the ground.
Diego Simeone was 28 years old at that time, the captain of Argentina, playing in the position of a cunning and fierce defensive midfielder. David Beckham was only 23, with romantic blond hair, extremely handsome and playing flamboyant football. And Becks fell into a trap when he tried to retaliate, even though he was lying face down on the ground, he still tried to lightly touch his heel to his opponent. Just waiting for that, Simeone fell down and signaled to the referee, then rolled around in pain.
Immediately after that, the referee showed Simeone a yellow card, but worse, for Beckham, it was a red card. From then on, England were completely outclassed in a 10-on-11 game. Glenn Hoddle’s team managed to hold on after two extra periods, but were still defeated 3-4 in the penalty shootout.
In the dressing room, David Beckham cried like a child, while outside, the whole of England was cursing the beloved midfielder of M.U. Remembering this, former player Tony Adams recalled how he consoled his junior.
“He was really sad and in tears and I think that was a normal reaction,” Adams told Sky Sports.
“Then David was crying like a baby and I put my arms around him and I turned it into a joke. I said, ‘Hey man, listen, you’re a young man and you’ve got time, you’re playing for one of the biggest clubs on the planet. Go back to Manchester United and you won’t let anyone down. You’re still young and there will be many World Cups to come. But you’ve ruined my dream because this is my last chance at a World Cup’. Then, I remember very clearly, he was looking at me and saying, ‘Are you kidding me?’. I know, David got over the shock afterwards but it still haunted him a little bit,” the former Arsenal player recalled.
With this red card, Beckham was considered a sinner of England and became one of the most hated people of the year. But then, David Beckham stood up maturely. He helped M.U win the treble in the 1998/99 season. Four years later, he had a rematch with Simeone and Argentina at the 2002 World Cup and Beckham had sweet revenge: Scoring the only goal from the penalty spot, helping England win, and eliminating Argentina right from the group stage.
