I highly doubt that.
Barcelona: Charged with corruption .... again!
- Thread starter The Boy
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Messi doesn’t transcend football. It’s not even close
Read just a few post above yours, Messi is 5x more popular than Beckham. Its laughable to compare their impact, only in an Utd forum would someone post things like that.
Beckham didn’t come up through social media age. His social media was the actual media and that kind of exposure will forever carry him. There’s billions of football fans yet Messi has 250m. Just think about that.
For every football fan that knew Beckham it was his wife and daughter following him as well. People may have known Messi but that’s about it. Ask them his daughters name, who his wife is etc.
Beckham was guest of honour at the White House for feck sake! He is a star front page and back
And President Obama compared himself to Messi and repeatedly spoke about him.
Course he is. Much, much more non-football fans will recognise Beckham over Messi. A lot wouldn't know Messi if he walked past them on the street.
Beckham on the other hand...
Are Barca fecked or not?
I’m sure he did but there’s a difference between the two. I didn’t say Messi was anonymous, it’s just not on the same plain as Beckham. The man is out there hanging out with The Rock and Tom Cruise!
I agree. Beckham has the lot; a history of being an excellent, successful player, the looks, a famous wife, the money, megastar friends. Image is MASSIVE and Beckham has much more of it over Messi.
100 percent. People born after 2000 really don’t seem to get how big Becks was. I’m afraid the Twitter and Instagram brigade can’t be argued with though…
You can tell who're the kids here who've not experienced Beckham-mania.
Beckham is a great footballer, but he's a genius at branding himself that his kids are making a career based on their surname alone. The fact that he's long retired and still has endorsement earnings close to Messi and Ronaldo says a lot.
His fecking haircuts made headlines ffs, and you could go to any decent barber and they'll have multiple choice of Beckham's hair for you to point out which one you preferred. He even made the world research what a metatarsal was when he got that injury before an international tournament.
Beckham, Ali and MN all transcended their sport and became famous for being famous. Ronaldo hasn't even approached that level, let alone Messi, who's a very private guy.
Beckham is a great footballer, but he's a genius at branding himself that his kids are making a career based on their surname alone. The fact that he's long retired and still has endorsement earnings close to Messi and Ronaldo says a lot.
His fecking haircuts made headlines ffs, and you could go to any decent barber and they'll have multiple choice of Beckham's hair for you to point out which one you preferred. He even made the world research what a metatarsal was when he got that injury before an international tournament.
Beckham, Ali and MN all transcended their sport and became famous for being famous. Ronaldo hasn't even approached that level, let alone Messi, who's a very private guy.
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Yep, a lot of people seem caught in the football bubble. Countless people know who Messi is by the same metric the majority of us know about Tom Brady or Lebron James. We heard of them and all but they don’t transcend their sport. If Messi is only known for football then he hasn’t transcended the sport in any way. Beckham couldn’t get a haircut in peace and it’s not as if it were 50 years ago. He has shared the same pitch with Ronaldo and Messi
Not really.
I don't think Instagram etc. are such a good benchmark of how popular people are. There are entire generations of people who aren't really that into social media. I mean there are people in Poland with 2-3m subscribers (which is like 10% of adult population) on Instagram/YouTube that neither me nor any of my friends have ever heard of but they seem to be massively popular among current 12-20 year olds who literally all have social media and will follow every single person they are familiar with.
Having followers isn't the same as being famous really. Becks is a genuine superstar both on and off the field and has been since the 90's, Messi won't have this longevity.
nobody was taking on Griezmann and coutinho
and from the athletic:
‘He was responsible for 90% of what we sold’ – this is Barcelona after Lionel Messi
https://theathletic.com/2771865/202...fter-lionel-messi/?source=user_shared_article
Some extremely creative accounting there.
So 90,000 people wouldn’t have turned up to watch Barca without Messi?
9 out of 10 sponsors completely walked away from Barca when Messi went to PSG?
90% of non football sales we’re nothing to do with the players (the women, the basketball, the handball)… just Messi?
I’m just amazed it wasn‘t 100%… him being Messi and all.
So Barca have got €162m of cash? Odd that they needed an emergency €80m loan just to pay the wages then?
I was actually wondering about that, do you know why camp nou looked so empty for the 1st game of the season?
Both Messi and Barcelona moved on already. Barcelona will be fine as long as they make the CL every season. Barcelona is a big brand.
feck me there’s some shite posted here.
Becks in a social media age would’ve broken instagram.
That was for 2019/20
Only in Redcafe can you find a group of people arguing that Beckham is more famous worldwide than Lionel Messi on 2021. Even after seeing the numbers that basically gauge popularity in todays world (followers), theyll jump trough hoops to argue against it.
No guys, David Beckham isnt a more popular human being worldwide than Lionel Messi is. You cant argue against this, there isnt a single logical argument to use in favor of Beckham, not statistical, not mathematical, not financial, anything. Best you guys can do is "instagram kids dont know anything!". But hey, lets just agree to disagree then.
Followers on every social media account, number of google searches or mentions trough the last several years, common sense, etc all of these will show you who is by far the most popular out of the two.
No guys, David Beckham isnt a more popular human being worldwide than Lionel Messi is. You cant argue against this, there isnt a single logical argument to use in favor of Beckham, not statistical, not mathematical, not financial, anything. Best you guys can do is "instagram kids dont know anything!". But hey, lets just agree to disagree then.
Followers on every social media account, number of google searches or mentions trough the last several years, common sense, etc all of these will show you who is by far the most popular out of the two.
Beckham is hardly more popular in select western countries, let alone the fecking world.
they made their bed wtih some absolutely stupid signings in Griezman and Coutinho with some way over the top salaries that took their spending beyond what their revenue was. They're getting what they deserve right now in losing Messi and struggling to bring in players and fuk sake even pay players
Beckham is a 46 year old man for feck sake!
The Anglo-centricity of a lot of posters here needs to be remembered. Messi as a Spanish speaker playing for a Spanish club will have a lot of influence, and media representation in the Spanish speaking world so if you don’t speak Spanish, and are not exposed to Spanish media it’s not a fair comparison to compare Beckham’s influence in the English speaking world to Messi’s in the English speaking world. At least as a proxy for overall global recognition.
In 2021 he isn't as popular, no-one I can see is arguing this.
Figo isn't as popular in 2021 as Bruno Fernandes either.
Your point?
The worlds biggest stars are from the English speaking world. You’re just reasoning why Beckham is bigger.
Plenty of fake subs you can buy too from all over the world.
The state of this, Beckham retired years ago and came up in a time when social media wasn’t even really a thing.
For Messi in China celebrating his Copa America Win.
And he wasn't even there.
Anecdotal examples of a few people taking pictures of a famous footballer doesn't diminish the fact that if you're not reading Spanish newspapers you're barely exposed to the majority of the things written about Messi.
Edit: I'm not making a conclusion as to who is the most 'famous' of the two, but when people start talking about media reporting of haircuts (even worse, their memory of them) and drawing upon nostalgic recollections of how absolutely everybody loved their boyhood hero then I think the conversation has veered off into the very, very, very subjective. Especially considering the inherent subjectivity in comparing the popularity of two international athletes, separated by a lot of space and time.
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I'm not quite sure what you mean by "bigger". I was speaking more in terms of global recognisability, or perhaps media attention.
For all I know Beckham may be "bigger", or more recognisable than Messi.
Beckham has been the face of football for so many for decades now. He was also worshipped by housewives and teenage girls. His popularity was ridiculously diverse and had a bigger scope than just football fans.
I wouldn’t even put Messi above Ronaldo never mind Beckham. Today’s fractured media outlets hurts today’s celebrity, it’s the fact you couldn’t get away from David helped his popularity soar.
Messi is a world class football but that’s it. If you know Mess then you have heard of Beckham. It can’t be claimed the reverse is true