Remember that time Michael Jordan scored 43 points while wearing a pair of wing-tips? David Beckham, one of the basketball legend’s long-time admirers surely does.
The English soccer star is on a five-day tour of China as part of his role as the Chinese Super League’s global ambassador. It has been an almost flawless exercise in public relations, but there was one slip-up in the proceedings.
While visiting the Wuhan Zall club in China’s Hubei province on Saturday, a formally attired Beckham took the field to play some soccer — as he had done on previous stops. At one point in the session, the PSG midfielder decided to show off his trademark free-kick technique. The only hitch was that he was wearing dress shoes instead of soccer cleats.
A crowd of onlookers were watching as he ran up to the ball, planted his foot next to it, slipped, went airborne and fell to the ground. Beckham joined the onlookers in laughing at his moment of misfortune.
The light-hearted moment didn’t detract from Beckham’s work as a CSL brand builder or his status as a soccer and style icon. If anything, it only shows that he hasn’t reached Jordan’s level. After all, the former Chicago Bulls great ran a company and a basketball game while wearing fancy shoes back in 1997. Do we care that Jordan’s feat occurred in a commercial and Beckham’s slip was in real life? No, not really.
See still shots of Beckham’s famous fall in the video below.
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