The film about David and Victoria Beckham made people talk about the footballer’s infidelities

The Beckham documentary series, all four episodes of which are available on Netflix, has sparked intense reactions on social media. And, of course, they are not arguing about football. This project clearly does not pretend to be called a sports project. The result was, rather, a glossy report and a small guide to British humor.

Victoria Beckham: We were very, very working class…

David Beckham (looking out from behind the door): Tell me what car your dad drove you to school in…

Victoria: Well, it depended on…

David: Just tell me which car.

Victoria: Okay, in the eighties my father had a Rolls-Royce.

Probably one of the funniest episodes of the series went viral on social networks, and David Beckham was called the last real investigative journalist in the comments. In general, there are a lot of funny episodes, and all of them are not related to football. Football here is shown to be a terrible inhumane industry, and the coaches and functionaries are just a bunch of greed and bad manners.

As a child, Beckham, he said, could play all day long. He was just over twenty when serious popularity fell upon him. Former Manchester colleagues in their interviews for the series are in no hurry to call Beckham a genius and seem to envy him. And there is something to envy. Rock stars sometimes sneer that in their business it’s not enough to play the guitar cool, you also need to be able to hold it cool. Apparently something similar is happening in football.

Beckham may not have scored too many goals, but he was obscenely photogenic on the pitch. It is not surprising that advertising contracts rained down on him, and he spent the money from them in such a way that years later one can talk about it in a fascinating way. The entire first reward from Adidas was spent on a BMW M3 car, and the weekly salary at the club ended on the day of payment, because it was spent on jeans, Rolexes and Gucci leather jackets.

“The coach wanted me to be focused, give my all to the game and marry the girl next door,” David laughs. Alex Ferguson, the head coach of Manchester, in turn, complains that Beckham terribly corrupted the team with his behavior, they say they’ve seen enough of him and give everyone cars and first-class clothes.

But it was not easy to keep up with Beckham. The affair with Victoria Adams or Posh Spice, a member of the then super-popular girl group Spice Girls, happened as if especially for the tabloids. David’s colleagues remember how the couple drove around Manchester in the football player’s blue Ferrari, and Victoria herself is touched by how pleased she was to see David during the tour, who rented a private plane and flew to her for just a few hours. This couple’s wedding was lit just like a royal one. OK magazine shelled out a million pounds for access to the ceremony, but the photos of the newlyweds sitting in throne-like chairs were probably worth it.

The drama in the film is driven by the episode with the loss of the England team to the Argentines at the 1998 World Cup. Beckham received a red card for a conflict with Diego Simeone’s player, the English lost on penalties, flew out of the championship, and the fans saw in all this solely the fault of the star football player. The most polite tabloids have long called Beckham a cretin; his injuries on the field were greeted with ovation; on the streets, instead of asking for an autograph, they could spit in his face.

But even talking about the depression he experienced and subsequent conflicts with Alex Ferguson (throwing a boot in the locker room and, as a result, a cut eyebrow became another high-profile tabloid story), the sale of Manchester management to Real Madrid and the difficulties of adaptation in a foreign country, Beckham hardly brought tears of pity from the public. David’s ability to keep an ironic face in any situation and the scenery of his everyday life do not in any way invite pity.

The situation that could have destroyed the Beckhams’ marriage is mentioned in passing in the series, which apparently hints at the deep wound that David’s fling with his assistant Rebecca Luz, discussed some time ago, left. “How did we survive this? It’s still unclear,” says Victoria, making it clear, however, how important her 24-year marriage and three children are to her.

However, drama, even if there really was one, is clearly not what the filmmakers focused on. They wanted to go behind the scenes of the life of one of the most famous couples on the planet – and they got there. We must admit that Beckham’s boudoirs are quite funny. Here is David in his apiary, pouring organic honey, which his wife calls “Beckham Goo,” sitting in a gazebo, grilling vegetables and not really worrying about the symptoms of obsessive-compulsive syndrome when he hangs clothes by color, cleans candlesticks or fights with dirty dishes. An almost ordinary life? But everyone would like one.