Becksgate

It emerged today that David Beckham won’t be representing Great Britain at the Olympic Games this summer. Head coach Stuart Pearce, instead, opted to call on Welsh duo Ryan Giggs and Craig Bellamy and Manchester City defender Micah Richards as the three over-23 players allowed for each representing nation.

Unfortunately, it means that David Beckham has no place in the squad, despite his hard work in helping secure London as the city to host the summer’s event. Understandably, there was outrage across the social media sites as to why Beckham hadn’t been included in Pearce’s following his work in securing the competition in the first place.

Well, Pearce has, as expected, selected three experienced players for each position – Richards in defence, Giggs in midfield as Bellamy up front. His direct competition for a place in the team would’ve been with his former Manchester United team-mate. However, it was the current LA Galaxy star that had been pencilled as a ‘dead cert’ by some. Clearly Pearce hadn’t taken note.

To put it simply, the Team GB head coach made his decision for footballing reasons. Giggs, despite being over a year older than Beckham, is still plying his trade in, arguably, football’s biggest domestic league. That isn’t to say the MLS is rubbish in comparison, far from it in fact. But, the Premier League is still a more revered competition and that fact that Giggs regularly challenges for domestic and European honours would have seen him edge Beckham out of a place in Team GB.