The Beckham Experiment: Fail
July 3, 2009 – 9:00 am by Lance Zimmerman
You would think that a book written about soccer’s biggest star (and some would argue biggest star regardless of sport) would be a fluff written novel, about how wonderful it is to be David Beckham. Sports Illustrated’s Grant Wahl has written a tell-all book of Beckham’s trip to America to play for the MLS’s Los Angeles Galaxy, and he’s definitely not writing it as an ode to Beckham.
In 2007, the Galaxy invested $250 million over five years for Beckham. I’m not going to rain on Beckham fans’ parade, but $50 million a year for a player who was 31 years old at the time of signing the contract is ridiculous. The fat contract definitely increased initial interest into the MLS, but the Galaxy playing as poorly as one team can the two seasons Beckham has been here as killed the momentum the sport could have continually gained here in the states.
Beckham was loaned to AC Milan at the end of 2008 by the Galaxy. This “loan” fueled the fire of speculation that Beckham would never make it back stateside and would finish his career in Europe. Eventually Beckham came out with a request to be transferred to Milan, but Galaxy requested a minimum of $10-$15 million dollars in exchange for Beckham. The loan to Milan was extended in order to keep all parties happy, and Beckham will be back with the Galaxy mid-July for more overpaid and ignored MLS action.
Grant Wahl joined 790 the Zone in Atlanta to discuss his new book “The Beckham Experiment” and all things David Beckham.
On if there is something Grant found out that the general public isn’t privy to in terms of Beckham:
“Well, here’s a guy who’s probably the most famous athlete in the world coming to a country where he’s not as famous in America in 2007. You had these worlds colliding as in David Beckham makes $50 million dollars a year all told and teammates on the Galaxy make $12,500 a year and actually play. That to me was an interesting story potentially so I followed that over the last two years. I had a lot of very good access inside the Galaxy, some to Beckham. I interviewed him more than any other American journalist, maybe even international journalist over the years. I think I was able to get access that’s very hard to get in the major sports these days. It makes for a very interesting story.”
Grant was asked about the whole Landon Donovan taking shots at Beckham in Donovan’s new book:
“We’ll have to see how that goes in the locker room since their lockers are right next to each other. I’ve been very curious to see once this came out, and now it has, how Beckham responds now that he’s going to be rejoining the team and playing his first game on July 16th in New York with the Galaxy. I think Landon Donovan got very frustrated by the end of last season. Here’s a guy who was the main guy and the captain of the Galaxy. Beckham comes in, Beckham’s people engineer behind the scenes captain’s switch. I think there’s a cardinal rule in American pro sports that if you bring a new guy in with a higher salary than your best player, the new guy had better play better than that other guy. The fact of the matter is Landon Donovan has played much, much better than David Beckham. That was a recipe for resentment. “
Grant was asked if the move to bring Beckham over was more for the entire sport of soccer here in America as opposed to just the Galaxy:
“It was supposed to raise the level of American soccer, get more people aware of Major League Soccer. In some ways it has succeeded from a business perspective. Beckham has made a lot of money. The Galaxy have made a lot of money. MLS is known by more people around the world, but at some point, to have credibility, you have to be good on the field and the Galaxy have been a disaster. Haven’t made the playoffs the last two years, they were tied for the worst record in the league last year. Beckham looked like he was going through the motions the last half of the season last year. It needs to be about the sport at some point and they haven’t been able to do that.”
Listen to Grant Wahl on 790 the Zone in Atlanta
Tags: David Beckham, Grant Wahl, Los Angeles Galaxy, MLS, The Beckham Experiment
