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New ball game for Beckham
By Tom Teodorczuk, Evening Standard 15.12.06
A Celebration aims to capture David Beckham's life
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We have seen him on the football pitch, at parties and in advertisements. Now get ready for the definitive portrait of David Beckham on canvas.
Sacha Jafri's 7ft by 6ft painting is intended to represent different aspects of the footballer's life and his Greenwich soccer academy.
The picture, A Celebration, includes the footprints of Beckham and the handprints of footballers John Terry, Cesc Fabregas, Frank Lampard, Rio Ferdinand, Paul Gascoigne, Ruud Gullit, Paul Merson and Gianfranco Zola.
Jafri completed the handprints yesterday before the painting was auctioned for £125,000 to a mystery buyer at the Ministry of Sound in Elephant and Castle last night after a £25,000-a-team corporate five-a-side event featuring the footballers.
Other famous names at the event, in aid of the David Beckham Academy and children's charity Shine, included Charles Saatchi, Lawrence Dallaglio and Ray Winstone. The painting features 12 of the 103 goals Beckham has scored for England, Manchester United and his current club Real Madrid as well as underprivileged children who have attended his academy.
The former England captain's wife Victoria does not feature.
Old Etonian Jafri, 30, said the painting was "a serious challenge".
"The idea was to celebrate all David's achievements in football and outside the game, which, to be fair, are pretty impressive." The artist incorporated several of 31-year-old Beckham's different hairstyles: "I've got the Mohican, the hairband and the swept to the side and slick looks."
Jafri, whose patrons include Kevin Spacey, Sir Philip Green and Prince Albert of Monaco, was given the go-ahead from Beckham after he painted last year's Ashes-winning England cricket team.
He said: "A lot of painting is conceptual but I do live painting and maybe they wanted a big painting full of colour, movement and energy.
"It's been a bit of a nightmare, the most awkward thing I've had to do. Most of my paintings take six months but for this one I had two weeks. I spent 14 hours a day on it and had three or four hours sleep a night."
Jafri, who has not been paid for the work, added: "I thought David would be aloof and hard to get hold of but he was really approachable, warm and much more involved and enthusiastic than I thought he would be. I didn't really expect it but he was really co-operative. He got in touch to say, 'I think it's really cool and I want to help'. It was something that he really cared about."
Reader views (1)
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I wonder who the mystery buyer was who splashed out £125,000 for this "creation"?
Any implication that this painting is just another form of "vanity publishing" would simply be speculation on my part!
- Steve R, London, UK
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