WHEN assessing the career of David Beckham, who announced his intention to hang up his boots at the end of the season yesterday, it is exceptionally hard to focus on the football.

Brand Beckham has become so powerful, so pervasive, that it is all too easy to forget what made the 38-year-old such an influential figure in the first place.

It wasn't his constantly-changing haircut or his pop star wife, although both helped him transcend the boundaries of his sport to become England's best-known celebrity for much of the last decade.

It wasn't his myriad of business interests that have seen his name become attached to aftershaves, underwear and a whole host of lucrative endorsements.

It wasn't even his ambassadorial talents, so successfully harnessed by Unicef and the organisers of London 2012, and so important in terms of transforming him into a global icon.

No, in the days when it was David Beckham instead of Becks, a football pitch was the midfielder's only platform and a football was his only way to make people sit up and take note.

Strip away all the celebrity trappings, and you're left with one of the finest footballers of his generation. The best England has ever produced? No. But still a remarkable talent who gave every last ounce for his club sides, most notably of course Manchester United, and his country, who arguably benefited most from his services.

He won six Premier League titles, two FA Cups and a Champions League during his ten seasons at Old Trafford, a haul that reflects Manchester United's dominance throughout the 1990s, but that also underlines Beckham's importance to a side that swept all before it for more than a decade.

Having graduated from Manchester United's academy and made his Premier League debut in 1995, Beckham was part of a group of young players that transformed the club's fortunes. Alan Hansen famously claimed you couldn't win anything with kids - along with the likes of Nicky Butt, Paul Scholes and Gary and Phil Neville, Beckham helped conclusively prove otherwise.

A natural winger despite limited dribbling talents and a relative lack of pace, it was his crossing ability that set him apart from his peers.

Few players could deliver a ball into the box as effectively from open play; even fewer could come close to matching his ability from set-pieces.

There were times when his right foot was akin to a wand, lobbing Wimbledon goalkeeper Neil Sullivan from the halfway line in one of the most memorable moments in Premier League history, or curling home the last-gasp free-kick against Greece that earned England a place at the 2002 World Cup finals.

That strike, more than any other, earned him hero status in the eyes of England's supporters, a radical turnaround from the vitriol that had been hurled in Beckham's direction three years earlier.

For all that Beckham is regarded as a national treasure now, things weren't always so affable.

In 1998, he was sent off for kicking Argentina's Diego Simeone in the second round of the World Cup. England lost, Beckham was castigated, and his effigy was hung outside a London pub as he prepared to make his domestic comeback against West Ham.

Back then, the Londoner was public enemy number one, and it would have been easy for him to decide that enough was enough when it came to representing his country.

Instead, he diligently set about restoring his reputation. The Greece goal marked the turning of a corner, and the redemptive process was complete when Beckham scored the winning goal against Argentina in a World Cup group game in 2002.

He was England captain by that stage, and during his six-year spell with the armband, he evolved into the most popular skipper since Bobby Moore.

Unlike some of his contemporaries, Beckham could never be accused of failing to appreciate the importance of the England shirt.

In an era when the likes of Scholes, Jamie Carragher and even Alan Shearer were retiring from international football in order to prolong their club careers, Beckham continued to make himself available for England duty.

Even when he was playing in the United States with LA Galaxy, or on loan in Italy with AC Milan, he would gladly trek to Bulgaria or Belarus to sit on the England substitutes' bench in case the call came.

England's travelling supporters appreciated that, and those watching at home admired the sense of devotion that matched their own.

Beckham's 115 appearances make him England's most capped outfield player of all time. Only Peter Shilton stands above him on the all-time list, and while some decried the fact that a number of his latter appearances were as a substitute, most simply applauded his desire to carry on playing.

Perhaps the only real disappointment is that his club career ended in a somewhat unseemly world tour rather than here at home. Beckham will point to his league winners' medals in Spain, US and France as justification for his increasingly itinerant existence, but it would have been nice to see him strut his stuff on the Premier League stage one last time.

That, however, is a minor quibble. Cultural icon, global celebrity and a fantastic footballer to boot, Beckham departs as one of the greats.

CHAMP OF BECKHAM'S CAREER: The celebrity formerly known as ‘Posh Spice’ helped transform Beckham’s status and stood by him when rumours of infidelity threatened their marriage.

CHUMP OF BECKHAM'S CAREER: Not content with kicking a boot at Beckham in the dressing room, the Manchester United boss forced the midfielder out of Old Trafford in 2003.

PERFORMANCE OF BECKHAM’S CAREER: ENGLAND V GREECE (2001) With England stuttering in their decisive World Cup qualifier, Beckham played like a man possessed before curling home a dramatic late free-kick.

TIP FOR THE FUTURE: It’s 6-4 that David Beckham will become Sir David Beckham this year. It looks a pretty safe bet.