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Yvonne Williams is not a football fan but was moved by David Beckham’s story of resilience after his infamous 1998 World Cup mistake
The almost religious status of our ‘national game’ makes me sick. Still, I binge-watched Beckham and came away surprisingly inspired (Rows, haircuts, and Spagbol: the Beckham Netflix documentary left me longing for football’s less sanitized past, October 15).
It wasn’t the hairstyles, the fashion, the cars, or the luxurious interiors. It was how David Beckham overcame the vitriol leveled at him by fans and media after the infamous 1998 World Cup mistake and how he managed to move on.
Seeing the Beckhams acknowledge the pain and its impact on Beckham’s performance showed that vulnerability is nothing to be ashamed of (especially for boys) and that even if things are bad for an extended period of time, they can get better.
For a teacher, this episode is gold dust. There are so many children who feel isolated and attacked in schools, who see no end in sight to the pain of their peers’ unkindness, which is magnified by social media.
It is instructive for students who take sides in friendship disputes. Do they really want to hurt their peers? Do they want to see themselves behave as badly as the aggressive fans and TV personalities?
And it’s a good reminder of the role of support groups (such as the Manchester United team and manager). How can schools set up this kind of support internally?
It’s not quite what the program makers intended, but it is much more valuable than the current commodification of football.
Yvonne Williams
Ryde, Isle of Wight
Netflix’s Beckham documentary contains useful lessons for today’s schoolchildren