03 December 2023 , 09:24
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David Beckham admitted he was left 'shocked and emotional' when hearing the thoughts and testimonies from others on his sending off at the 1998 World Cup against Argentina, with the latest being Michael Owen.
Beckham has been forced to revisit his infamous red card against the Argentinians in England's World Cup Round of 16 defeat 25 years ago, following the release of his Netflix documentary in October. With the scores level at 2-2 in France, the former Manchester United star was dismissed following an off-the-ball incident with Diego Simeone.
After playing nearly all of the second half and extra-time with 10 men, Glen Hoddle's team managed to battle their way to a penalty shootout before losing 4-3 following misses from Paul Ince and David Batty.
In the aftermath the finger of blame was pointed at Beckham, and 25 years on the miss has once again become a talking point thanks to his Netflix series. Having the sending off catapulted back into the public unsurprisingly proved tough for the ex-Real Madrid midfielder.
Opening up on his 1998 sending off, he told AP: "This whole process has been like an emotional rollercoaster. I’ve never talked about these certain moments in my career and in my life... I hadn’t actually watched it and I hadn’t actually watched the interviews and what people said about me after."
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"I knew it was bad at the time, but going over that whole that whole thing was quite a tough one." The latest to have their say on the incident amid the recent release of 'Beckham' is the Englishman's former teammate Owen.
Speaking on the Up Front with Simon Jordan podcast, Owen claimed there was still a feeling of 'resentment' towards Beckham thanks to his lack of discipline. "Firstly, I don’t believe David Beckham ’s kick out at Diego Simeone should’ve been a red card, but that is irrelevant," he said.
Michael Owen opened up on David Beckham's sending off (YouTube)"He made a mistake and that is where my resentment lies. For a lot of players you only get one shot at a World Cup, and he made a big mistake – he would admit that. You could say that it contributed to us being knocked out and that is a big thing.
“You can resent a lot of things if you use that word, and I do resent a lot of things. Paul Ince missed a penalty and I resent him choosing to shoot the ball one way instead of the other, in the same way I resent Beckham making the decision to kick out at Simeone.
“I resent his actions for all manner of reasons. It was a mistake that only he made and it makes you think that if he hadn’t done it, we could have beaten Argentina. I’m absolutely convinced that we would’ve beaten them with 11 men because we were the better team. We had an unbelievable team so of course I think to myself what could have been.”