Bend it like Beckham and God bless the men and women who serve.
Posted on 05/22/2010 7:08:04 PM PDT by Dinah Lord
Visiting Afghanistan is something David Beckham has always wanted to but until today was unable to fit the visit around his demanding football schedule.
With more time on his hands since an injury that has put him out of play, Beckham, 35-years-old, took a flight to Helmand where about 8,000 British troops are based.
"I have nothing but admiration for these young men and women, and it makes me very proud to be British," he said in a statement released by BFBS. "I've wanted to visit Afghanistan for a long time, and I hope that in some small way it helps remind everyone at home what an amazing job they are doing out here in very difficult conditions. I feel very humble."
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
Bend it like Beckham and God bless the men and women who serve.
Great story. Beckham seems to be a good guy. I’m proud to have the Brits standing shoulder to shoulder with us in the fight against terrorism.
Nice gesture, but this Beckham is a total fraud. He got paid millions of dollars to play soccer in the U.S. and every time I turn on ESPN he can’t play because he stubbed his toe or something. The guy is ALWAYS “injured.”
If I had his bucks, I would pay for half a dozen C-130s to come with, packed to the max with “Xmas goodies”, of both a practical and private enterprise military nature.
For example, a whole bunch of production model Barrett 98s (1800m effective range) and 82s (1200m effective range), as well as a lot of ammo. Nothing quite boosts morale like the ability to “reach out and touch someone” at well over a mile.
Two of the planes filled entirely with junk food. The other three with an assortment of goods and goodies, to make life a lot more livable. Troops don’t have a heck of a lot, so really appreciate some of the finer things in life.
Have to admit to not really being a soccer fan but Mr. Beckham went up greatly in my esteem when I saw this article.
As far as I’m concerned most all of these sport guys are overpaid and underworked, but there are only a few that go out of their way to salute the troops. To me, that means something.
A fantastic idea, yefragetuewrabrumuy.
Maybe you should become his manager - given his chronic injury problems he could sure use some good pr.
;^D
Cynicism is healthy and always welcome. (See comments 3 and 5.) This is probably just a pr ploy given Mr. Beckham’s torn achilles. That’s okay. At least he made the gesture which is more than can be said for many of the popular athletes today.
IMHO, he would have gotten even more points if he would have dragged the high maintenance Missus along with him!
(Welcome back, BTW - didn’t you de-opus yourself today?)
Dear me, Miss Vicky is more trouble than she’s worth, period!
She would probably give the boys a thrill dressed in saucy camo, tho. (There’s no way they’d let her anywhere near the locals - just sayin’)
;^D
I think this is a wonderful thing for him to do.
Dittoes.
Also, thx for the pix. Glad I didn’t have to call “Rules!” about Beckham ;-)
In the US Naval Air, the planes that were constantly not available for service were termed “hanger queens”. Since he got the huge multi-million contract to play for LA years ago, he has been the “hanger queen” of soccer with all of his real or “reported” injuries.
His visit to AFG is, IMO, just an attempt to boost his image because it has suffered greatly in the sports world for the past few years.
Nice gesture, but this Beckham is a total fraud. He got paid millions of dollars to play soccer in the U.S. and every time I turn on ESPN he can’t play because he stubbed his toe or something. The guy is ALWAYS “injured.”
Have to disagree. It was a dumb move by the LA Galaxy to spend all that money on a player who was not even playing regularly for his Spanish team when they signed him....and Beckham already had injury woes before the Galaxy signed him.
Also, putting a Brit in a city where the majority of soccer fans are racist Aztlan/Reconquista latinos (legendary for hurling urine and feces-filled balloons at US national team players and fans) was a dumb marketing move. The east coast teams, who would have had more marketing opportunities with a British player, stayed away from Becks because they knew he had little game left in him.
Nice move by Becks to go visit British troops. I am sure it helped their morale....even though Becks playing days may be over
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