On June 17, 2001, 16 internationals from around the world descended on London to take part in the inaugural Pepsi World Challenge.
Boasting the talents of Rivaldo, Roberto Carlos, Juan Sebastian Veron, Rui Costa, Dwight Yorke, and David Beckham, the competition put these seasoned internationals to the test in five skills challenges supposedly devised by Sir Alex Ferguson himself to test passing, dribbling, ball skills, ball control and shooting,
“I purposely didn’t make the skills tests easy,” said Ferguson. “We can all take free kicks and dribble – but these test the person.”
When you discover the two tasks to which Ferguson alludes are literally just dribbling around mannequins and taking free kicks over a wall of mannequins, you get an idea of the level of glorious silliness that sits atop this entire wonderful affair.
The whole thing has the veneer and shine you’d expect from a glitzy corporate-sponsored occasion, but that is constantly undercut by constant bits of shabby amateurism.
Just to set the tone from the word go, the very first people to appear on screen after the opening graphics are presenters John Barnes and Lisa Rogers (whose caption is misspelt ‘Rodgers’), with the latter calling the tournament “a kind of World Cup for players”. Wait, what?
Introductions
The decision to introduce the players in alphabetical order continues the amateurish trend but also highlights what an eclectic bunch this is.
Out first is Sami Al-Jaber, who is confusingly listed as playing for ‘Wolves (UK)’, presumably to differentiate them from Nigerian second-tier club Warri Wolves, or Australian non-league side Wynnum District Soccer Club Wolves, or defunct Canadian side St Catharine’s Wolves.
That’s not why it’s confusing though. No, that’s because Al-Jaber was not a Wolves player at the time: he had made six Championship appearances from the bench on loan from Al-Hilal some four months before the tournament even took place.
Anyway, the next guy out is some fella called David Beckham. Even if you didn’t know anything about football, the hyperactive Pepsi adverts that litter the broadcast make clear that he is at the height of his fame here.
But this is also right in the middle of perhaps the finest year of Beckham’s career: 2001 saw him win the BBC Sports Personality of the Year, make the UEFA Team of the Year and finish as runner-up to Luis Figo in the FIFA World Player of the Year vote, having helped Manchester United…
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