When one thinks of David Beckham, the free kick ability is one of the first things to come into mind. Now that was about a decade ago. Now, at 37 years old, he has gone through a few seasons in the MLS, which isn’t exactly the equivalent of the English Premier League. Well, he now plays for PSG, the top French team at the moment.
About a week ago, he started a Champions League match against Barcelona. I watched the replay of the first leg, and was shocked at Beckham’s statistics after one half. Even as a deep lying old man, he still managed to log the most distance run by any of the players on the field. This is more than the distance run by the famous high-work rate Barcelona players such as Xavi and Iniesta. Moreover, many of the players are at least 15 years younger than him.
Now is this a first? In terms of age, probably not. 38 year old Paul Scholes comes to mind, who covered 8.5km in 79 minutes of play against Galatasaray (Champions League match stats).