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David Beckham. Ever heard of him?
He’s the latest soccer — excuse us — football star to come to America to stir the enthusiasm Americans must be hiding when it comes to the world’s most popular sport.
He and his wife, Victoria, have been media darlings in Britain and for all of Europe for that matter for quite a few years. Their public and private lives have sold millions of papers for the British tabloids. Beckham’s powerful kicks from the corner, bending across the goal mouth, even spawned a popular movie titled, “Bend It Like Beckham.”
His beautiful footwork on the fields and his hot and cold and then hot again athletic prowess has made many soccer pundits wonder why he has come to America to ply his trade in what is certainly an inferior league with inferior players.
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Well, one very good reason is the possible $250 million he might earn over the course of his five-year contract with the Los Angeles Galaxy team. And his wife has already parlayed her style and looks into a TV special.
Yes, the world is Beckham’s oyster, and if he can get Americans to come along for the ride, so much the better.
This type of thing has been tried in the past, most notably when the renowned Brazilian soccer star Pele took New York by storm and little else.
What the American soccer scene really needs is a home grown team that does well on the world stage — winning the World Cup, for example. Picture the 1980 Olympics and the “Miracle on Ice.” That’s where a bunch of college kids took on the much more adult and professional hockey players from Russia and Finland and won the gold medal. Americans can buy into a story like that.
Beckham’s story, in contrast, is about promoting Beckham. Because of that, we have our doubts most Americans will think any differently about soccer regardless of his achievements on and or off the field.
