open circles

I love Diarios de Futbol. There, a group of Spanish writers, some amateur, some who publish in the national press, all admirably workaholic, post pieces on football. The coverage is remarkably international, in-depth and, in a Spanish way, really poetic. Sadly, Ramon Flores does not share my distrust of everything David Beckham-related, including David Beckham the footballer. So when he says, in an otherwise nice piece of join-the-youtube-dots, that Beckham has this weekend ‘closed the circle’ - with a goal goal from the half way line at the end of his career for the LA Galaxy against Kansas City recalling his similarly distance-defying effort in the beginning for Manchester United against Wimbledon back in 1996 - I despair at all this poeticization of football and its obscuring of the implications - IT CAN NEVER BE A GOOD THING TO BE POETIC ABOUT DAVID BECKHAM, KIDS MIGHT READ THIS RAMON - perhaps because it reminds me that DB has had phenomenal moments on, as well as off, the pitch.