David Beckham is known as one of the sweetest strikers of a football in history, so Gareth Bale’s latest admission is likely to leave the former Man United ace livid.
The highlights reel of Beckham’s free-kicks and cross field passes from his time at Old Trafford, as well as at Real Madrid, LA Galaxy, AC Milan and Paris Saint-Germain, would still make for incredible viewing even now.
Bale was no slouch himself when it came to mastery of a dead ball, but not even he was in Beckham’s orbit in that regard.
David Beckham isn’t likely to be happy with Gareth Bale’s free-kick admission
Perhaps the only player that comes close to the former England captain is James Ward-Prowse, currently plying his trade at Nottingham Forest.
A couple of years back, Beckham even sent a classy message to Ward-Prowse who was beginning to close in on the former’s Premier League record of 18 direct free-kick goals.
Since then Ward-Prowse has got even closer, and The Analyst note that he’s now just one shy of his contemporary in the all-time list.
At a recent event, Gareth Bale was asked by the Daily Mail to choose between various players as to who was better at free-kicks.
The short interview began with a choice between Frank Lampard and Wayne Rooney, progressing to Bale himself against Cristiano Ronaldo, with a final choice of Ward-Prowse or Beckham.
The obvious choice was Beckham, but Bale, incredibly, said “I’d probably go James Ward-Prowse actually.”
It’s a choice that Man United fans and probably Beckham himself will be livid about.
Whilst there’s no doubt that Ward-Prowse also strikes a ball beautifully, watching Beckham in his pomp was like poetry in motion. An artist at work.
Frankly, there isn’t likely to be anyone else with an interest in football that wouldn’t put David Beckham at the top of that particular tree.