David Bentley: What Happened to ‘the Next Beckham’ in Russia?
David Bentley remains the first and only Englishman to ever play in the Russian Premier League with FC Rostov, but what went wrong for the man dubbed ‘the new David Beckham’?
Back in 2012, when David Beckham was preparing to wave goodbye to Major League soccer, the man once described as his “Beckham’s natural heir” was heading somewhere entirely different: Russia.
David Bentley probably never imagined, in his wildest dreams, that he would become the first Englishman to play in the Russian Premier League.
Five years previously, an England B team appearance for the then-Blackburn winger had Steve McClaren purring.
“His right foot is pretty similar to David’s. He’s got a great touch, great feel on the ball, and he can deliver that pass,” McClaren told the Lancashire Post.
“But he’s still got a long way to go before he emulates anything that David (Beckham) has done.”
A £15 million move to Tottenham the following year was supposed to be the start of something big for Bentley but it soon became apparent that he was no Beckham.
Ranking the likes of Paul Gascoigne and Eric Cantona among his idols, Bentley shared their penchant for the flamboyant – and disregard for the rules.
“I always looked at how players were as people, as a sort of performer,” he told the Daily Mail.
“My flaw was I’d never touch my toes and take it like a good boy.”
Inconsistent, injury-plagued and in and out of the Tottenham team under Harry Rednapp and later Andre Villas-Boas, Bentley made just 42 Premier League appearances for Spurs over the course of his five-year contract.
During that time the midfielder found himself regularly farmed out on loan to Birmingham and later West Ham but it was his six-month loan spell with FC Rostov that remains the strangest of footnotes on his football career.
”There were offers [in England] but I thought this was more attractive, a real challenge to be the first Englishman to play here,” he told The Independent.
“I thought it would be nice to get away to experience a different style and football culture. Going abroad is something I’ve wanted to try.”
Yet Bentley’s choice of Rostov, a city located some 700 miles from Moscow, may have also had something to do with his nomadic childhood.
“I travelled around a little bit when I was a kid,” he told The Express.
“My dad was in the RAF so I spent six or seven years following him around to different places and different countries.”
His historic debut came on September 15th 2012, when Rostov entertained Dinamo Moscow.
Out of action for an extended period of time, following a serious knee surgery picked up back in October 2011, Bentley nevertheless put in a solid shift, lasting the whole 90 minutes as Rostov claimed an important 1-0 win.
The next four fixtures saw Bentley start each and every game with Rostov giving the midfielder the regular first-team football he had so sorely missed at Tottenham.
Given free reign on all corners and free-kicks, Bentley also took on the role of midfield general, directing his teammates and barking orders from the centre of the pitch.
It didn’t necessarily transfer into results though with the relegation-threatened Rostov losing three of their first four games with Bentley in the team but the player, himself, seemed settled.
“When I arrived it was a big surprise,” he told the BBC. “The weather, the restaurants, the people, it’s been a very nice nice surprise. This is the experience that I wanted.”
And while he was only contracted to the club until December, he spoke in the long-term about his new Russian employers in a manner that suggested the move could be for keeps:
“There’s some very good players, very good teams. Rostov are as a club. They want to develop. They are a smaller club now but they want to develop.”
The language barrier still remained an issue, with Bentley admitting he was struggling to get to grips with Russian.
Despite this confidence was high among the player, club and supporters that things would only get better on the pitch.
That optimism did not last though, with Bentley suffering an ankle injury in a 0-0 draw with Lokomotiv Moscow that saw speculation rife that his Rostov loan cut short.
In any event, Bentley remained in Russia yet things soon began to turn sour.
David Bentley in fight for the ball with Spartak’s Dmitri Kombarov.
Restricted to just three more first-team appearances, Bentley’s fitness and injury problems seemingly put paid to the loan deal being extended with the midfielder failing to score or provide an assist for his Rostov teammates.
Quite how he gelled with the famously volatile Miodrag Božović was also debatable given that Bentley has, in recent years, made no secret of the fact he has fallen out every manager he has worked under.
Further isolated by his inability to pick up language and with the Russian winter fast approaching, Bentley’s in-built fight or flight instincts, honed from his childhood, soon saw the midfielder opt for the latter.
However, with Bentley retiring from the game less than a year later, his failure at Rostov may have been the result of a wider disenchantment with the game.
Whatever the case, Bentley soon found himself back in England, moving on to Blackburn for a second loan spell in January 2013 that yielded little in the way of memorable moments.
Four years on and with the former Tottenham and Blackburn man happily retired and living the high life in Spain where he runs his own restaurant, Bentley can look back on his career with plenty of pride.
And while his Spurs move may be the biggest blemish on the career of an England international who also stands as just one of five players to bag a Premier League hat-trick against Manchester United, some may argue that his time with Rostov represents the biggest disappointment.
It was there that Bentley had the unique opportunity to follow in the footsteps of one of his idols.
When Paul Gascoigne moved to Lazio he sparked a trend that saw English players and fans take a renewed interest in the Italian game.
Russia may lack some of the sparkle of Serie A but, had Bentley enjoyed a prolonged stay in the Russian Premier League and thrived with Rostov then perhaps things could have been different.
Instead, his short spell in Eastern Europe represents a minor footnote on an otherwise eventful career and arguably the biggest legacy of a player who once dreamed of emulating Beckham.
Чемпионат России 2015/2016 (24-й по счету) пройдет в сроки с 17 июля 2015 по 16 мая 2016. Он будет разделен на две части: первые 18 туров пройдут до зимнего трехмесячного перерыва, а оставшиеся 12 - только весной.
Все чемпионы России/СССР:
21 - "Спартак" (1936-осень, 1938, 1939, 1952, 1953, 1956, 1958, 1962, 1969, 1979, 1987, 1989, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001)
12 - ЦСКА (1946, 1947, 1948, 1950, 1951, 1970, 1991, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2013, 2014)
11 - "Динамо" (1936-весна, 1937, 1940, 1945, 1949, 1954, 1955, 1957, 1959, 1963, 1976-весна)
5 - "Зенит" (1984, 2007, 2010, 2012, 2015)
3 - "Торпедо" (1960, 1965, 1976-осень)
2 - "Локомотив" (2002, 2004) и "Рубин" (2008, 2009)
1 - "Алания" (1995)
Все чемпионы России:
9 - "Спартак" (1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001)
5 - ЦСКА (2003, 2005, 2006, 2013, 2014)
4 - "Зенит" (2007, 2010, 2012, 2015)
2 - "Локомотив" (2002, 2004) и "Рубин" (2008, 2009)
1 - "Алания" (1995)
Чемпионат России 2015/2016: изменения в составе участников
По итогам предыдущего сезона Премьер Лигу покинули:
- "Торпедо" Москва - вылетело спустя 1 год в элите;
- "Арсенал" Тула - вылетел спустя 1 год в элите.
Вместо них путевки в Премьер Лигу завоевали:
+ "Крылья Советов" - вернулись в элиту спустя 1 год после вылета;
+ "Анжи" - вернулась в элиту спустя 1 год после вылета.
Особенности регламента чемпионата России 2015/2016
* Клубы, занявшие 15-е и 16-е места, вылетают в Футбольную Национальную Лигу (первый дивизион).
* Клубы, занявший 13-е и 14-е места, проведут стыковые матчи с 3-й и 4-й командой ФНЛ за место в элите в следующем сезоне.
Распределение путевок в еврокубки 2016/2017 по итогам чемпионата России 2015/2016:
1 место - групповой этап Лиги Чемпионов 2016/2017
2 место - 3-й квалификационный раунд Лиги Чемпионов 2016/2017
3 место - 3-й квалификационный раунд Лиги Европы 2016/2017
4 место - 3-й квалификационный раунд Лиги Европы 2016/2017
+
Обладатель Кубка России 2015/2016 - групповой этап Лиги Европы 2016/2017
Календарь и результаты Российской Премьер Лиги, а также ссылки на видео голы и обзоры чемпионата России 2015/2016 доступны немного ниже...
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