2009/10 UEFA Champions League draw

2009/10 UEFA Champions League draw

Quarter-finals: 30/31 March & 6/7 April

1: Olympique Lyonnais (FRA) v FC Girondins de Bordeaux (FRA)

2: FC Bayern München (GER) v Manchester United FC (ENG)

3: Arsenal FC (ENG) v FC Barcelona (ESP, holders)

4: FC Internazionale Milano (ITA) v PFC CSKA Moskva (RUS)

Semi-finals: 20/21 & 27/28 April

1: Winner quarter-final 2 v Winner quarter-final 1

2: Winner quarter-final 4 v Winner quarter-final 3

Final: Santiago Bernabéu, Madrid; 20.45CET, Saturday 22 May

Winner semi-final 1 v Winner semi-final 2

David Beckham: England legend or a vain failure?

In his last of his 115 caps for England in October, David Beckham was given the man of the match award despite playing only 32 minutes of the game. As weird decisions go, it was a good way of embodying the strange, polarising effect that Beckham has had over 14 years in the national team.

For some he will be seen forever as the man who went to three World Cups finals and failed every time; a self-regarding fraud whose best days as a footballer were 10 years ago. For most of the Wembley crowd he remains an all-English hero, whose loyalty to that Football Association marketing concept "the Three Lions" puts him up there with the greats who have represented England.

The argument is self-perpetuating: the more he is lionised by some, the more he is resented by others and so it goes until the basic questions anyone should ask about a footballer - can he still play? Is he a good professional? - are lost in the debate about what he has come to represent.

Now that his England career has been ended so abruptly the chances of that debate ever being resolved sensibly, with him having one final hurrah from the bench at a World Cup, are gone.

It is a debate that is only likely to be intensified if he accepts the invitation to go with the squad to South Africa as a non-playing member of the party/monumental distraction.

Let's get the debate about him as a footballer out of the way first. At 34, he is long past his best but in the 21 caps since his comeback under Steve McClaren in August 2007, he has contributed. I make it nine assists in those games, including two crosses for goals against Estonia in June 2007; the ball for Peter Crouch's goal in the Wembley defeat to Croatia the same year and even a short corner for Shaun Wright-Phillips to score from in his last game against Belarus.

But it will not be the statistics upon which posterity judges Beckham's England career, it is the whole caravan: the deferential England managers, the spurious bookings, the tattoos, the pre-World Cup parties and the general impression some have of Beckham that he thinks the world orbits around him.

The problem many people who love to hate Beckham encounter is that as an individual he is hard to dislike. He is not a bon viveur full of witty put-downs when he faces the press - that is Steven Gerrard's job - but Beckham is polite, mild and, even now, sometimes stumbles over his words.

The supporters at Wembley cannot all be wrong. They feel a connection with him that transcends the usual suspicion of modern-day millionaire footballers. They like the fact that he is rich, famous and lives in Beverly Hills but, like them, makes a regular pilgrimage to the stadium by the North Circular in the vain hope that one day the England team will get their act together.