Behind the smile, the understated talk and the calm pose, David Beckham is as passionate off the pitch as he is on it. So the past few months have been an extraordinary roller-coaster for him, full of emotions and frustrations. He has had to bite his lip many times to stop himself saying what he really thinks because he believes in putting his head down and working until the storm goes away, a strategy that has always worked well for him. And the storm that started last August has had more lightning and thunder, twists and turns, than the entire career of most footballers.

Beckham was so distressed by the decision of Steve McClaren, the England head coach, not to count on him that Fabio Capello, his coach at Real Madrid, noted that his football was affected. “He has had psychological problems accepting it,” was Capello’s curious choice of words when he spoke about it on Revista de la Liga on Sky Sports. Unable to convince Real that he deserved the contract that the former president, Florentino Pérez, had offered which would surely have kept him at the club for two more years, he did not understand the lack of clarity and urgency from the new men in charge, Ramón Calderón, the president, and the director of football, Predrag Mijatovic.

Without the backing of the coach and the new board, Beckham allowed his representatives to start working on the deal that would take him to the Los Angeles Galaxy, a move confirmed on January 11. “He has deceived us twice,” Calderón said. “He met us but had already decided to leave. He has gone to Hollywood to be half an actor.” That same day Capello left him out of the squad to play Real Betis in the Spanish Cup and a couple of days later the Italian announced that the midfield player was not going to be used by Real again.

Beckham watched the television in amazement – that is how he learnt about the coach’s decision. “The club have decided this,” Capello said at the time, while Calderón, although unhappy with the player, admitted privately that he had nothing to do with the move.

Things were going to get worse as Mijatovic put pressure on Calderón and Capello to force Beckham out of the club. The director of football wanted the Galaxy or the player himself to pay for the remainder of his contract. Distressed by the decision to leave him out of the Real squad and aware of the moves behind the scenes, Beckham spent a few training sessions away from the other players with another pariah, Antonio Cassano, while everybody else followed Capello’s instructions. Beckham could hear himself repeating like a broken record, “Why me? What have I done to deserve this?” After one of those training sessions, and with the other players around, Capello told Beckham that he was not working hard enough.

Beckham could not hold himself back any longer. He pointed out that the reason why he was only going through the motions was because he was being unfairly punished for having signed for another club, something he had the right to do. He had always been a professional and he was going to give everything for Real. He complained that he had never understood why Capello had not told him to his face about leaving him out of the squad.

A week after that conversation, during which Capello could not answer the accusations of his player, Beckham was called up again to play against Real Sociedad. That angry exchange, the media comments and the pressure from his teammates – including Raúl and Guti – changed the coach’s mind. But he never apologised to Beckham for having left him in isolation at the Bernabéu for a month.

Capello could have been dismissed the evening of that match against Sociedad, but Beckham scored the first goal in the 2-1 victory. He was sent off during the next game against Betis and missed the derby against Atlético Madrid. He was then ruled out for seven weeks because of a knee injury and, since his return as a substitute against Valencia, Real have won their past six games and he has contributed five assists, the first one of them against Valencia when the score was 1-1 and Sergio Ramos scored the winner after a cross by Beckham. Raúl admits that everything attacking-wise for Real goes through the former England captain at present – and the club could win La Liga, their first title in four years, if they beat Real Zaragoza and Real Mallorca.

Beckham, recalled to the England squad by McClaren, now feels feels important, which could not have been said in previous seasons. He has the backing of the coach, who talks to him almost daily after ignoring him for eight months, his physical shape is the best it has been in three years, his future is decided and he is now playing with the freedom of someone who has shown the world again that it was wrong and he was right.