It was twenty years to the day last Wednesday when David Beckham scored that free kick against Greece.
Readers of a certain vintage won’t need the obligatory reminder about how England, needing a point to qualify for the 2002 World Cup finals, were wretched against Greece and 2-1 down until Beckham seized a last-minute free kick and, with his trademark brilliance, curled it into the top corner.
Every English football fan alive would be able to recall it and describe it in detail, including, it seems, Phil Foden, who was 16-months old at the time. ‘I’ve just seen his post on it,’ says Foden, referring to the clip Beckham put up in his Instagram account of him listening to BBC’s Alan Green’s exuberant and memorable commentary.
Phil Foden is bursting with ambition to get England to the top, and he might be onto something
David Beckham's iconic free-kick against Greece is a throwback to very different England days
This is how a generation learns its history, via social media.
‘I was just watching it back for first time,’ said Foden. ‘Great commentary weren’t it? And great goal.’ Beckham, in last week’s Instagram post, turned to camera and gave his wry, handsome, film-star grin and arched his eyebrows as Green roared his approval.
And yet that was England back then, a world away from now. Iconic moments then were forged from a last-minute equaliser that qualified a team for the World Cup finals. It wouldn’t get any better for Beckham with England than that.
For a 21-year-old with three Premier League titles behind him, a Champions League final, who was shortlisted last week for the Ballon D’Or European Footballer of the Year having played a significant role in England reaching the Euro 2020 final, it must seem a little odd.
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Did we really get that excited about qualifying for a World Cup? The Germans always sniggered when we greeted our 5-1 demolition of their team in Munich in that same campaign as a cause for national rejoicing, while they quietly rebuilt and made their way to the 2002 World Cup final and then went on to win the 2014 World Cup.
This England team, Foden’s generation, are an entirely different proposition to Sven Goran Eriksson’s. ‘We want to be the No.1 country in the world,’ said Foden last week in the run-up to last night’s World Cup qualifier against Andorra. ‘We’re really fighting for that.’
Had Beckham said that, it would have been a soundbite unsupported by the national team’s record. When Foden says it, it comes on the back of a World Cup semi-final and the Euro 2020 final.
And the gulf between this team and the Wayne Rooney’s generation, the team that Southgate inherited that failed to reached Euro 2008 and then imploded at major tournaments in 2010, 2014 and 2016, is cavernous.
It helps of course if you have good players. There was a moment in the opening minutes of England’s campaign last summer when a peroxide blonde attacking player sprinted into space with the ball and with impudence of youth, shot straight for goal, hitting the post.
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Phil Foden’s introduction to Euro 2020 against Croatia was unforgettable: the blond hair, the exhilarating acceleration, the mesmerising ball control. Paul Gascoigne was reborn and we were back at Wembley for Euro 96.
Yet there was ultimately that nagging sense of dissatisfaction by the end of the tournament. Rested against the Czech Republic, Foden then
