Welshman Craig Bellamy is making Englishman Stuart Pearce look good.
Britain coach Pearce’s decision to pick Bellamy and two other over-23 players atthe expense of David Beckham triggered an uproar, but with Bellamy having been perhaps the team’s best player as it’s advanced to the quarterfinals the criticism has waned.
“It is brilliant to be part of the Olympics,” the 33-year-old Bellamy. “I am enjoying everything about it — wearing the kit, having the accreditation around my neck.”
Bellamy could bedescribed as the anti-Becks, the poster boy of English soccer for the last decade and a global fashion and marketing icon. Bellamy has clashed with both teammates and opponents in the past, and wasarrested on suspicion of assault last year. Yet he and the team have won over many skeptics. This is the first unified British team to play in the Olympics since 1960, and rather than the indifferenceexpected by some observers, it has played to full stadiums and finished atop Group A. On Wednesday in his hometown of Cardiff, Bellamy captained the team in the absence of 38-year-old compatriotRyan Giggs, who was rested for the match. (Englishman Micah Richards is the other over-age player.)