"The whole country hated me. Hated me." That's how David Beckham describes the fallout from one kick — the one that got him sent off against Argentina at the 1998 World Cup and became the defining low point of his early career.
Twenty-eight years later, with England and Argentina set to meet again in a World Cup semi-final, Beckham and Diego Simeone — the man whose theatrical reaction prompted that red card in Saint-Etienne — are about as far from enemies as two former rivals can get.
The long road from Saint-Etienne to South Beach
After Argentina lifted the 2022 World Cup trophy, Beckham posted a photo of the two of them together. "Congratulations my friend," he wrote. Simeone reposted it: "Good to see you always!" Then, during this tournament, Beckham was spotted alongside Simeone at Argentina's round of 32 match against Cape Verde in Miami — the city where Beckham runs Inter Miami. "Bumped into an old friend in Miami," Beckham captioned the photo. The warmth looked genuine.
Simeone even appeared in Beckham's 2023 Netflix documentary, which is where the full weight of what happened in 1998 finally came out. "I made a stupid mistake. It changed my life. I felt very vulnerable and alone," Beckham said. "I wasn't eating. I wasn't sleeping. I was a mess."
He still can't fully forgive himself. "It is only now I beat myself up about it," he admitted — which says something about how deep that scar ran, regardless of how the friendship looks from the outside now.
England vs Argentina, again — with history watching
The timing of this semi-final couldn't be more loaded. Beckham did get a measure of revenge in 2002 when his penalty against Argentina in the group stage helped send England through while the South Americans went home. But penalties and group stages aren't semi-finals. This match carries the kind of weight the 1998 one did.
Beckham's connections to Argentina run deeper than most England fans would be comfortable with. Lionel Messi and Rodrigo de Paul both play at Inter Miami. Gonzalo Higuain, a 2014 World Cup finalist, was there too. He's professionally intertwined with the Argentine football world in a way that goes well beyond one famous red card.
That cross-stitch of loyalty makes the image of Beckham courtside in Miami with Simeone feel less like a surprise and more like the logical endpoint of a long, complicated relationship. Whatever England fans make of it, the hatchet is buried — and Beckham clearly had no say in when or how this semi-final arrived to dig it all back up again.
