David Beckham – The Real Beckham at AC Milan

David Beckham taking a freekick for England - which John Terry will score from

There is a David Beckham I do not admire, but there is another Beckham and he is at AC Milan today.

David Beckham at AC Milan is a keen soccer player working hard in training to earn the chance to play along side some of the world’s very best players like Kaka, Ronaldinho, & Pirlo.  David is putting in the hours and effort on the pitch, striving and doing the hard work.

There is the David Beckham we have seen playing for the LA Galaxy.  Our family watched Beckham play the San Jose Earthquakes in the MLS.  Beckham seemed bored, unengaged.  There was no work rate evident on the pitch in the first half, even with the Galaxy trailing the Earthquakes.  The Galaxy lost 3-2, but David still came to his adoring fans on sidelines after the game, while his teammates walked off to the locker room. Beckham took off his shirt and signed autographs, the lady fans swooning over his body, while his teammates were awaiting the stinging words sure to come from their coach.

It is enough at times to forget that David Beckham is a real soccer player.  

This week I could tell my son that Beckham was training really hard at AC Milan, trying to earn a starting spot alongside the world’s great players.  Earning a start is something all competitive soccer players understand, and to hear that even Beckham of fame and infamy, billboard ads and wealth is working his tail off to earn a chance to play, registers.  This is the David Beckham that can be a role model.

Natural talent is not enough in modern times, perhaps it never was.  Studies show that it takes about 10,000 of deliberate focus or training to reach true mastery of a subject, be it playing a soccer position or solving an unsolvable math puzzle.  It’s the answer to the old joke “Can you tell me how to get to Carnegie Hall?”

Sir Alex Ferguson, manager at Manchester United, had plenty of criticism for Beckham over the years, but has also said that David Beckham “practised with a discipline to achieve an accuracy that other players wouldn’t care about.”  We heard simarly last year about how Cristiano Ronaldo would spent countless hours after practice working on his free kick technique, a technnique that not only scored goals, but won championships, and made the difference in becoming acclaimed last years best soccer player world wide.

We marvel at Beckham’s incredibly accurate long passes and freekicks, and at Cristiano’s incredible freekicks and dribbling.  How do you or I or our children get that good?  Ten years, ~3 hours a day.  10,000 hours.

David Beckham, now rich and spoiled wants for nothing, or does he?  He still strives, he wants a start with AC Milan againdst As Roma on Sunday January 11th.

“I know the kind of team Milan is, the professionalism that exists, and I am willing to work really hard for my place in the squad,” Beckham related.

“You could see that he wants to play and win with us,” said Ronaldinho. “Simplicity is his best weapon, and with desire you can accomplish a great deal. Milan is not a team of galacticos, it’s a team with a lot of great players that know how to sacrifice themselves.”

Beyond soccer, Malcolm Gladwell talks about the stubborness to put in 10,000 hours being the kind of “genius” the world needs now.

Will Beckham get a start on Sunday?

“David is working hard,” Milan manager Carlo Ancelotti said, “as are the others.”

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Less seriously, his friends are likely to punk him back in Manchester:

Rio Ferdinand Punks David Beckham in Manchester, England