Beautiful Beckham’s failure is the true legacy of the Galactico Masterplan

When David Beckham arrived at real Madrid in 2003, the club’s Galactico plan was in full flow. With European Cup victory in 2002 plus league titles in 2001 and 2003 and an attacking line-up containing Zidane, Figo, Ronaldo and Raul, it seemed the addition of one more world class creative player would create a team that would become a football legend like the Real Madrid teams of the 1950s and 1960s.

The new player could have been Ronaldinho, be he was regarded as “too ugly” to be a Galactico and was allowed to go to Barcelona.

Instead, the money was spent on Beckham, the poster boy from England.

But, 3 trophy less years later, Beckham is struggling to even get on the bench at Madrid while, over in Catalonia, Barcelona have replaced real at the top of Spanish and European football and the ugly Ronaldinho is playing the beautiful football that made him the number one star in the game.

So, why has Beckham’s time at Madrid been such a failure?

I think there are two reasons: firstly, Beckham was always going to be a square peg in a round hole.

Given time and space, Beckham can do phenomenal things with his right foot. And this allows him to be lethal at corners and free kicks. And, in the wide-open spaces of English football where crossing is a cornerstone of the attacking game, he was able to create a numerous chances for his teammates.

However, in the tighter Spanish game where strikers tend to expect the ball played through the middle and along the ground, Beckham’s crossing was always going to be underemployed.

Then there are the corners. There are fewer in Spanish football and they tend to be taken short rather than curled into the heart of the box, so Beckham found his ability from corners was also less valuable than in England.

Finally, with Zidane in the team, did Real really need a right-footed free kick specialist?

So, with his three main assets appearing to add little to the team, it was difficult to imagine him becoming a true Galactico.

The second reason was timing. Beckham arrived at the point of the greatest excesses of Real Madrid’s ambition.

Commercial ambitions and the promotion of the team as a “Harlem Globetrotters” of football had caused footballing fundamentals to be ignored.

The first sign of this was the departure of Claude Makelele. The French midfielder had been at the heart of the team’s success. His ability to break down opposition attacks and redistribute the ball to his more famous teammates was an essential part of their success. After all, a Galactico isn’t a Galactico if he doesn’t have the ball.

However, the club’s president didn’t see things that way and was unwilling to pay the Frenchman more than a fraction of the wages that he was offering Beckham.

So, Makelele took his ugly football to Chelsea’s (and won two championships) and Zidane was left to remark "why put another layer of gold paint on the Bentley when you are losing the entire engine?"

So, without their engine, Real Madrid’s success ground to a halt. Individually, they played some pretty football, but they never looked like a team.

After three years of failure, the plan was finally abandoned when Capello was brought in to coach the side.

With the team chosen for effectiveness, the prettiest Galactico soon found himself marginalized, starting only 5 of their 17 league games to date. And it was clear that the end was in sight.

LA would appear to be the ideal destination for a footballer who, despite his talents, was always more famous for his looks.

Only time will tell how Beckham will be remembered.

Will his legacy be that he was the person who broke 200 years of tradition and turned “soccer” into a major American sport? Or will he only be remembered as the Golden Boy who turned Real to rust?