What happened to David Batty, who shook off penalty miss against Argentina?

David Batty has spent nearly three decades being defined by a single moment: the penalty he missed against Argentina in the 1998 World Cup. But the man himself walked away from football and has never looked back, building a life that has nothing to do with the sport that made him famous.

Batty was one of the best English midfielders of his generation, a tenacious ball-winner who won the Premier League with Leeds United and Blackburn Rovers and who earned 42 caps for England. But his career is remembered for one kick from twelve yards in Saint-Étienne, after David Beckham had been sent off and the match had gone to penalties. Batty stepped up, struck the ball firmly to the goalkeeper's right, and watched as Carlos Roa saved it. England were out. Argentina went through.

The aftermath was brutal. Batty received death threats. His family was targeted. The tabloids, which had built him up as a warrior, now cast him as a failure. He retreated from public life, refused almost all interview requests and, when his playing career ended, disappeared from the game entirely.

Today, Batty lives quietly in Yorkshire. He does not watch football. He does not give interviews. He has, by all accounts, made his peace with what happened in 1998, but he has no desire to revisit it. When England face Argentina in the semi-final, he will not be watching. The match that defined his public life is one he has spent a private lifetime trying to forget.

The story of David Batty is a reminder that the narratives we construct about sport — the heroes and the villains, the triumphs and the disasters — are felt by the people involved in ways that the rest of us can only imagine. Some players embrace the memory. Others, like Batty, choose to leave it behind. Both responses deserve respect.