Mostly Hair and Hype

The English like to mock Americans for their attempts to try and understand football — their language of cleats, offence-stars and triple hats — but a glance through US coverage of the Beckham move suggests that our national David is heading for a wry, savvy reception in Los Angeles rather than anything too naive or blandly enthusiastic.

The most upbeat verdict comes from Sports Illustrated columnist, Grant Wahl, who writes: "Mark it down: Jan. 11, 2007 will forever be known as the day that Major League Soccer truly arrived on the world stage."

But after a quick nod to Beckham's feet ("he was still effective at last year's World Cup and remains one of the world's best free kick-takers"), the talk turns straightaway to Beckham's power as a marketing vehicle rather than as a 31-year-old athlete on sport's cruel, downward slope.

"Let's be honest: the marketing opportunities here are enormous," writes Wahl. "Expect to see Galaxy jerseys with Beckham's name in every corner of the world."

And that's where the conversation stays, in the boardroom rather than the bucket-seats. Is Beckham Inc worth the rumoured $250 million? How many season tickets will he move? What about the website?

ESPN, the sports broadcaster, skips past any debate about whether he should play in the middle or out on the right, instead deciding: "The Beckhams should fit in just fine in LA. He opened a soccer academy at the Galaxy's stadium complex last year, and she was photographed house-hunting in the area. Their young sons carry headline-friendly monikers: Brooklyn, Romeo and Cruz."

"Drawing paparazzi like movie stars, Beckham and his wife regularly find their way onto tabloid and magazine covers. With trendy clothes and rotating hair colors and styles, he's the epitome of the modern celebrity-athlete."

"'The first thing he needs to do is get himself a part on The Simpsons as a guest star,' said Richard Laermer, a New York-based marketing expert."

For Variety, the news source of choice for the Beckhams' Hollywood friends, Britain's platinum couple are just another expensive arrival in an already star-filled city and "it's unclear if the US celebrity-industrial complex is buying," the newspaper writes.

"I feel there is a disconnect between them and the American audience," said US Weekly editor Janice Min. "He is almost inconceivably good-looking, but their superstardom in the US has yet to be proven."

As for the early signs of America's celebrity coverage: more out of politeness than anything else Popsugar offers a little quiz on Beckham's career while there The Superficial does well to get over Goldenballs before he's even arrived.

"This isn't particularly interesting," the blog concludes, "except that it means we'll be seeing a lot more of Victoria Beckham these days. Which is either really exciting or really annoying depending on your stance on Oompa Loompas."

Plenty of more sincere blogs and sports writers make the connection between Beckham and the arrival of the really heavyweight stars — Pelé, Beckenbauer and Cruyff — who briefly lit up and then tipped over the North American Soccer League in the late 1970s, but none is prepared to predict that he will make a major difference in a country where football is played by millions but watched by not very many at all.

Joe Donnelly, a journalist and former football player, offers the most thorough analysis on Deadline Hollywood Daily, including such highlights:

"Beckham's not likely to succeed where Pelé ultimately couldn't either -- getting soccer to play on television. Why? First of all, Pelé was the greatest player to ever play the game and even in his mid-30s, as he was when he came here, could have run circles around Beckham, who is mostly hair and hype, not to mention a famous choker when the pressure's on.

"Sure Beckham's pretty... but newsflash — chicks just don't watch sports in significant numbers. Not even if Justin Timberlake was playing naked would they stick around after the novelty factor wears off. As for the guys? Beckham's too metrosexual to be a sports hero here. Not since Broadway Joe Namath wore fur coats and pantyhose has there been an icon this androgynous."

"Plus, soccer just doesn't work on TV here. It demands too much from a viewer — patience, an understanding of the games nuances and strategies, and a tolerance for long, long stretches of scoreless-ness, and then, usually when you get up to go the bathroom, someone scores and the game's over."

Comments

[Eric D in LA]

It's true Americans don't hold this game in as high regard as a number of others. Most people over here do not understand (But the Galaxy ownership does) the global appeal of Beckham. The LA Galaxy just increased the global interest in their club by 1000 fold by adding him to the club roster.

Additionally, there is far more interest and understanding of the game in the USA now than in the 70's when Pele and Beckenbauer played here. So a star like Beckham will have far more impact than before. The Galaxy made a smart move. Beckham fans in Europe and around the world will now wear Galaxy shirts, where before they wouldn't. The Galaxy wanted to expand their fan base, and they were smart enough to look beyond the US to do it.

[bernard michael (Florida)]

Great business move David, welcome to America.

[Isabella Luciana]

Anyone who thinks Beckham won't change the course of Major League Soccer in America, knows nothing about our country - or Los Angeles. No city in the world is better suited to David Beckham. We will give him mad support when he arrives in our city. Los Angeles is the trendsetter of the country. If Los Angeles embraces Major League Soccer when Beckham arrives, so goes the rest of the nation. Beckham has the very stuff Tinsel Town embraces and rewards. This is truly a monumental moment for this sport in America.

It will be fascinating to watch -- and this, from a person who has never been to a Major League Soccer match in their life.

Isabella Luciana
Beverly Hills, California

[sarah malik]

I am English and living in the USA and I think that many Americans are so excited to see David Beckham come over here. American football is traditionally the American sport but there is that showbiz element associated with David Beckham which the Americans love. You can rest
assured myself and all my UK ex-pat friends are surely going to take much more of an interest in LA galaxy now and I am certainly going to see them play!
Its wonderful! OK and Hello on our doorstep..

[Stephen Turner]

Beckham's move to the US is shrewd and is very good business for him. 250 million - exceptionally well taken. The deal is the business equivalent of that goal he scored from behind the half way line on the first day of the season ten years ago - something that Pele had tried but couldn't quite pull off. Unprecedented, jaw-droppingly cheeky, and Becks will be laughing all the way to the bank.

The move will shine favourable light on Beckham's football academy and his attempts to leave something of a football legacy for himself off the pitch, now that, finally, he has given up on further attempts to bolster a tired reputation on the pitch. For sure, if Beckham still had a shot with England he would not be moving to the U.S., where the football is not of a sufficiently high standard to keep skills honed to international level.

Beckham has been honest with himself and accepted that, even though he is only 31, he has little more to give the football world on the pitch. Therefore, a move primarily dictated by financial motivations makes perfect sense. But ignore all that drivel about fresh football challenges - the only challenge now will be finding new ways to spend the obscene amount of cash he has just pinched from the yanks.

Whether Galaxy will get what they want out of the deal is debatable. Beckam will shift shirts and push up gate receipts and advertising revenue etc (he does these sets pieces very well), but frankly, will mainstream Americans ever really care about 'soccer' - as they quaintly refer to it. Joe Donnelly is spot on with his analysis of the chances of U.S. TV & audiences embracing football. How is Becks going to succeed where Pele failed?

When we look back on this deal in ten years time, when football is still known in the US as 'soccer', and is still largely ignored by most Americans, we'll see that the only winner was Becks himself, scoring one final breathtaking goal - another one that not even Pele managed to do.

[Fabio C]

David Beckham has a great talent...to sale t-shirts. Considering that that's what the Americas are after, D. Beckham will do just fine. As for football in America, they will only be great the day that they can send their local times to play around the world and acctualy win major competitions promoted by FIFA, the way brazilian teams have been doing for decades. For as long as Americans play "soccer" among themselfs based on their own rules, they will never understand the greatness of the most popular sport in the world: FOOTBALL.

[A Adebiyi]

If the club has got that so much money, they do not need to waste it but they can do something good about it.
For example they can build a school in a war torn area of the world and people will appreciate it.
He will not give the return on money invested in him period.

[Ian Thorpe]

I love that comment about Major League Soccer arriving on the world stage.

Surely it has to arrive on the American stage first.

[lars]

typical uk America bashing......

Lt. Cmdr. Charles E. Madison: You American haters bore me to tears, Ms. Barham. I've dealt with Europeans all my life. I know all about us parvenus from the States who come over here and race around your old Cathedral towns with our cameras and Coca-cola bottles... Brawl in your pubs, paw at your women, and act like we own the world. We over-tip, we talk too loud, we think we can buy anything with a Hershey bar. I've had Germans and Italians tell me how politically ingenuous we are, and perhaps so. But we haven't managed a Hitler or a Mussolini yet. I've had Frenchmen call me a savage because I only took half an hour for lunch. Hell, Ms. Barham, the only reason the French take two hours for lunch is because the service in their restaurants is lousy. The most tedious lot are you British. We crass Americans didn't introduce war into your little island. This war, Ms. Barham to which we Americans are so insensitive, is the result of 2,000 years of European greed, barbarism, superstition, and stupidity. Don't blame it on our Coca-cola bottles. Europe was a growing brothel long before we came to town.

The Americanization of Emily
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057840/quotes