Motivation Quote by Mark Lawrenson

Calling Luis Figo “as important to England as Beckham is” is Mark Lawrenson doing what ex-pro pundits do best: provoking a debate by short-circuiting national mythology. David Beckham, in late-90s/early-2000s England, wasn’t just a right-foot and a haircut; he was the country’s most exportable idea of itself - aspiration, celebrity, and a kind of glossy, market-friendly Englishness that survived even when results didn’t. So to put Figo on that level inside the English story is deliberately mischievous.

The literal claim is flimsy (Figo isn’t English; Beckham’s cultural footprint at home is unmatched), which is the point. Lawrenson is smuggling in a sharper argument: England’s football identity is increasingly defined by who it imports, admires, and measures itself against. Figo, a Ballon d’Or-winning symbol of continental sophistication, becomes a mirror held up to English football’s anxieties. He represents the player England wished it consistently produced: technically supreme, tactically fluent, winner-coded. Saying he’s “as important” isn’t about passports; it’s about influence.

There’s also a media subtext. Beckham’s importance was amplified by tabloids, branding, and a nonstop narrative machine. Lawrenson flips that logic: if Beckham is “important” because the country talks about him, then Figo becomes “important” the moment England can’t stop using him as a reference point - a yardstick for talent, modernity, and status. It’s less praise than a diagnosis of obsession.