On July 21st, 2007, David Beckham ran on from the side of the pitch against Chelsea in a pre-season friendly. Twelve minutes later, the final whistle blew at the Home Depot Center, Carson City, LA, and his new team LA Galaxy had lost 1-0 to Roman Abramovich’s side in the World Series of Soccer. If there was anything more to say about David Beckham’s first year as an LA Galaxy player, it’s not too important.
Although, to be fair to the lad, he knackered his knee halfway through last season and in 19 games for the club, he’s got five goals, including a carbon copy of his goal from the halfway line at Selhurst Park back when he had floppy hair. And when he was relevant, some cynics might say.
Beckham himself was phlegmatic on his last year, claiming that it was soccer that was important, not his celebrity. Wise words, if they were true. But they’re not. LA Galaxy didn’t but David Beckham because he’s still a talented footballer. They bought him because he draws crowds. And while you might suggest that bums on seats is the ultimate recognition of a decent football team, the clear fact is that for every other team in Major League Soccer, they can expect a tenth of the gate Beckham draws.
I’m not going to denigrate America for having football grafted onto their culture. They can’t help it – businessmen look at the way the wind is blowing in sport and they can’t ignore the global nature of the game, and so they natuarlly want to make money in one of the biggest markets in the world. So they make rules that allow them to buy superstars and well-known grafters to add to their rather motley collection of natives (excepting rather more players than you would give them credit for) and hype it up. It won’t help getting sniffy about it; Britain tried the same thing with the advent of the Premier League and only calmed down when it became clear that not even cheerleaders flashing their nipples could make Sheffield Wednesday-Oldham exciting. But Americans are not averse to razzamatazz, so they include it. They do away with draws because the culture doesn’t like them. Que est-ce que ce, que est-ce que ca.
But the man himself said this week, when quizzed about the presence of five rather nubile blonde fans with ‘BECKS’ slapped across their bellies, ‘I don’t care who they’re here for, as long as they watch.’ The girls were New York Red Bulls fans. They were there to watch him, so like that clever-clever film about Zinedine Zidane where it watches his boots for ninety minutes, you got Beckscam for many people. They watched his every move, whether he had a ball in front of him or not.
And there in a nutshell in Becks’ problem. In twelve months, nothing has changed. It was like that play with Daniel Radcliffe in. People went along not because they appreciated Peter Schaeffer’s work, but to see Harry Potter’s personal magic wand.
Of course, you can’t have expected Beckham to have changed America’s attitude to football in twelve months. That only happens in Hollywood films and Billy the Fish. But that was exactly his mission statement, wasn’t it? To bring football to American people? So far, all he’s bought are fashion victims and extendable camera lenses.
It’s not Becks’ fault. Well, not all of it. He can’t help it if the choicest cheerleader at an LA Lakers game spots him and thinks by waggling her arse in his face she’ll get in the papers. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that his wife is in her element, getting in with the Cruises and “starring” in Ugly Betty. But there again, the man doesn’t help himself. Have you any idea what it costs to get a courtside seat to any major basketball game in the US? Even if it was free, a person who’s only intereste din football would turn the majority of them down. Ah, but Becks has always been a basketball fan, I hear you cry. That’s why he had the number 23 shirt, after Michael Jordan. Fair enough. But fans sit with other fans. They don’t sit with Spike Lee.
Half the battle is that Beckham, for all his supposed humility and shyness, loves being a celebrity at least as much as he loves being a highly-paid footballer. He’s arguably better at the former. A looker without a loudmouth. A clothes horse that gets paid to be completely fit and sculpted. He’s like Brad Pitt without the baggage. He’s had contracts for as long as you can remember: Brylcreem, Police, Pepsi. It’s not America that’s turned him onto it.
Beckham garnered loads of publicity at Real Madrid, some of it not related to football. But it was always headline news in Britain when he was dropped or sent off. Most of the adverse publicity was down to on-field events. Now his publicity revolves around that sock he clearly feels the need to hide in his pants.
Beckham went to the States at the wrong time, not just because he still had more to offer the British game but because he was so isolated. By setting himself up as an MLS-approved explorer, he made himself the only thing that could stop Americans concentrating on being football fans: the main attraction. Why watch the lion tamer when you paid to see the lion?
The only hope for Beckham’s American adventure is that it won’t end up like the NASL. They had Pele, for four million notes. He was followed by Beckenbauer, Moore, Chinaglia and erm, Beardsley. Then carbon copies of them all flooded through Ellis Island immigration, saying “me too!” Frank Worthington, Rodney Marsh, and alcoholic George Best. A past-it Alan Ball. With the greatest respect, no-one wanted to see washed-up playboys waste the hard-earned dollars fans had given over. So when the stars stopped coming, so did the fans.
Beckham is no Pele, and he should stop trying to be. He needs other high profile players to join him. He needs a Zidane, an Eto’o, a Ronaldo, a Raul. He can’t pioneer alone, because the circus will overwhelm him. The standard needs to be raised artifically high for at least the next decade, and the MLS needs to be bought in line with the rest of the world, meaning draws, and small leagues in local areas. Because once Becks retires, the best you’re going to get is another ‘pioneer’. Raise the standard, and players will be happy to go there during their peak years, not just at the end of their careers.
So Beckham, if he wants to be, can be a pioneer. The model of the way not to break football in the States. And if that’s his ultimate legacy, then he’ll be more than he could have ever hoped for.
