Michael Owen's brutal assessment of David Beckham's red card vs Argentina

For quite some time, David Beckham was the most hated man in English football.

The 46-year-old is now deservedly one of the most popular sporting figures on the planet, but in 1998 he was public enemy number one after his red card at that year’s World Cup against Argentina.

In England‘s last-16 match, Beckham petulantly kicked out at Diego Simeone and was subsequently sent for an early bath by referee Kim Milton Nielsen with the scores level at 2-2.

Glenn Hoddle’s Three Lions went on to lose the knockout match 4-3 on penalties thanks to Paul Ince and David Batty’s misses from 12 yards.

Neither Ince or Batty were held responsible for the defeat, though. Instead, it was Beckham who felt the full force of England fans’ rage.

It even got to the point where effigies of the Manchester United icon were burned, which was an absolutely disgusting reaction that is rightly always condemned.

But how did Beckham’s England teammates feel about the red card incident? Well, Michael Owen – who famously scored an incredible solo goal in that game against Argentina – certainly didn’t hold back when discussing it in his controversial autobiography.

The 2001 Ballon d’Or winner stated that Beckham “let every single one of that England team down” and even claimed that wife Victoria was disappointed in him for not publicly defending her husband.

“The fallout from David Beckham’s infamous red card against Argentina was still being felt some years later,” wrote Owen in his autobiography, per the Mirror.

“I’ll start by saying that David and I always got on well on a personal level. He was obviously a very talented player.

“I always admired him massively because I always felt that nobody, I repeat, nobody, worked harder than David to maximise the