For the Greater Glory of Beckham
by Sean Heffernan
The storm over David Beckham’s return to America came to a head in an awkward moment during a press conference prior to the LA Galaxy’s match with the New York Red Bulls last Thursday. Beckham responded to a question from Sports Illustrated writer Grant Wahl by asking if Wahl’s question was for his second unofficial book or his magazine. The unofficial book Beckham referred to was Wahl’s The Beckham Experiment, which has been the biggest source of negative media coverage that has met the midfielder since he’s returned stateside from his loan deal with AC Milan. ...Wahl’s book included comments from Galaxy captain Landon Donovan criticizing the way Beckham handled himself the past few years in Los Angeles.
To add to the media fire during the half time of last weekend’s friendly between the Galaxy and AC Milan (the game was negotiated as part of Beckham’s loan deal) Beckham almost got in a physical altercation with an angry Galaxy fan who had jumped onto the field. Yet, despite all the hullabaloo surrounding the international star, on the pitch things have turned around for Beckham and the Galaxy. L.A. is the hottest team in MLS at the moment, riding a three game win streak into this weekend’s clash with the Kansas City Wizards. As for the controversy, Beckham and Donovan met with each other in a meeting set up by Galaxy manager Bruce Arena upon the Englishmen’s return and worked out their differences. Still, as much as the Galaxy may want to put the disturbances aside and focus on soccer, I get the feeling that the rest of the season in L.A. won’t go drama-free.
When David Beckham first came to the Los Angeles Galaxy from Real Madrid, the Englishmen arrived in a media whirlwind as a soccer missionary to the United States. The American public underwent Beckham-mania leaving a lot of people wondering “Who was this extremely famous soccer player who talks like the GEICO gecko?” Beckham increased America’s awareness of soccer and the MLS, but the league was unable to fully capitalize on Beckham’s marketability as the midfielder’s first two years in the league were marred by injury and losing.
Beckham had come to Los Angeles with his tenure with England's national team seemingly on its last legs following his involvement in the 2006 World Cup. Then his former manager at Real Madrid, Fabio Capello, was hired as England manager following the Three Lions’ failure to qualify for EURO 2008. Capello began to call Beckham back into the England roster, but made it clear that if he wanted to be a part of the World Cup in 2010 that he needed to be playing at a top level European club. Bunkered in the terror that was last season for the Los Angeles Galaxy, Beckham made the decision to honor his Capello’s request and go overseas to super-club AC Milan on a loan deal.
Upon the Englishmen's arrival to Milan, Beckham answered his critics quickly earning a spot in the starting lineup chock full of elite players. Beckham’s playmaking abilities meshed well with the world class finishing of Alexander Pato, Filippo Inzaghi, and Ricardo Kaka helping the Italian club rediscover its form after a disappointing start to the season. Enjoying his success in Milan, Beckham announced that he'd like to stay beyond the original loan deal infuriating some Galaxy fans back across the pond. Was Beckham abandoning his American expedition?
His aspirations to lead the great conversion of America to “the beautiful game” had fallen to the wayside with his revised personal goals forging a new future for the world famous footballer. However, the LA Galaxy refused to topple over in negotiations when many European pundits thought the MLS club would cave in quickly to Beckham and mighty AC Milan’s demands. The Galaxy awarded Beckham an extension to his loan deal on the condition that returned for the second half of the Galaxy’s 2009 campaign and forked over a healthy amount of his own money to finance the loan.
The debate over Beckham’s act of self interest was on display in his return to the Home Depot Center against AC Milan as the Galaxy’s supporters’ club the “LA Riot Squad” waved banners calling Beckham a fraud and a traitor. In the game of soccer playing for your country is everything. The World Cup is the biggest stage in the world of sports and you can't really fault any human being for wanting to be a part of that. If Beckham went against Capello's advice and thrown away his national team chances he would have been thrashed in the U.K. for turning his back on his country. The fact is that despite being in the latter stages of his career, Beckham’s skill set hasn’t deteriorated with his age. Beckham has made his living making his teammates better with his intelligent, deadly accurate passing. Prior to coming to America, Beckham should have known that his England days were not quite behind him yet. He’s guilty of underestimating himself, but Beckham doing what he needs to do to make it to South Africa next year isn’t something that should keep Galaxy fans up at night. However, there may be a few inebriated “Riot Squad” members that just think it’s too much fun to not harass Beckham now that he’s challenged them to a fight once already.
In the first half of Saturdy's friendly whenever Beckham touched the ball an amalgamation of cheers and boos cascaded onto the field from the stands evocative of the spilt amongst American soccer fans over #23. At half time Beckham approached the “Riot Squad” to make peace, but his efforts seemed to only encourage the section’s taunting of the superstar. Then uncharacteristically Beckham lost his cool and attempted to hop the barrier to confront the “Riot Squad” member. Thankfully security and the players on the field got a hold of Beckham before the situation got completely out of hand.
Earlier in his career Beckham had flicked off raucous soccer hooligans, but never had the former England captain lost his cool to the point of almost getting in a physical altercation with a fan. In the second half Beckham had the last word, rifling a hurling corner kick off teammate Bryan Jordan’s head and into the back of the AC Milan goal. Beckham turned around to find most of the Riot Squad cheering for the goal, a sign that in the end winning cures all. The Galaxy are a better team with Beckham is on the field and I don’t think it will take long for the fans to realize that.
Does this incident show that Beckham does care about salvaging something from his time in L.A. and even willing to go blows over it? I don’t blame Beckham for going to Italy, but I do think that he does owe an apology to Galaxy fans for the team’s poor play the last two seasons. The Galaxy invested a fortune in him and the least he can do is apologize for his mistakes and other commitments and move on. It doesn’t matter if leaving the Galaxy was the best option for Beckham, it matters that he takes responsibility for his actions. Honesty goes a long way with people.
I can see why Galaxy fans would be upset over not having Beckham for the first half of their season, but I think the fans have a lot more to gain by embracing Beckham than they do booing him. What does turning Beckham into a backstabbing villain do for the growth of soccer in this country? Nothing. All it is cannon fodder for Beckham haters and soccer haters.
MLS has learned its lesson in that one player can’t turn America into a soccer nation overnight, but at this juncture the best thing for this league is to get the most out of Beckham as they can before he leaves for Europe on another probably loan deal. Hopefully, the Galaxy will do everything in their power to secure Beckham’s return following next summer’s World Cup. His family will be settled in Los Angeles and Beckham can finish what he started in America.
Running the most marketable soccer player in the world out of the league is not a good business strategy for the MLS. The best thing for the development of soccer in America is for the Galaxy to continue to play the way they’re playing and make a run deep into the playoffs. It might even be ideal that LA comes up just short in the playoffs so that Beckham has additional incentive to return in 2010 and claim the MLS Cup.
We may not know what the future holds for the world’s most well known footballer and his foray into the American sports landscape, but the coming months will certainly help to define what David Beckham’s legacy will be in the United States when all is said and done.
July 23rd, 2009 - 11:31
Love your article. Really articulate and unbiased.
However, one thing that I think not right, is that, Beckham does not owe an apology for the team’s last season poor performance, coz I believed he has ALREADY apologized to the fans about that BEFORE he even went to Milan. But he does owe them apology for not coming back to US after his initial 3 months loan agreement, as he was supposed to still be the captain at the time..and the team was having difficulties of winning games without him.
However, the fans too should be able to see now that because of that loan, because of that escapade that he was desperately needed at the time, Beckham now came back to US as a re-energized player, re-motivated player, as he has found himself back as footballer, he has re-discover his confidence back, he has re-discover his goal back as a footballer, on and off the pitch.
The same goes to LA Galaxy. Beckham’s loan has prepared the team better this time of what to expect, and re-organized the team and their play on the field. Yes..he should be with them when the team was re-organizing the pre-season, but..Beckham needed to find himself back, and I don’t think 3 months was enough for him to do so. He needed to find the confidence that he was still capable of winning a cup, winning a league, still capable of challenging competitors on the big stages..so helping AC Milan until the end was what he needed to do. I think if he came back after the initial 3 months..the LA Galaxy won’t get back a motivated, confidence player like what we see today, instead the same frustrated, unmotivated, given up player of the last year.
As for the team’s poor performance, that was not on Beckham alone, as one man cannot make a team. And yes, I do believe he has already apologized for the team’s performance before he went to Milan. I think Beckham will apologized for his abandonment of this team when they needed him, but in his own usual style – playing hard on the pitch and winning games. Cheers!
July 23rd, 2009 - 12:27
Thanks for the comment Fan! Good thoughts. Yeah, probably can find something from last year that has Beckham apologizing for the team’s poor play last year. If you look at the Galaxy right now, there’s not a lot they can complain about in terms of the play on the pitch. They hired Bruce Arena and he was able to rebuild the team to be a contender. When Landon was gone on US duty they went 3-2 without him or Beckham. I just hope Beckham comes back after the World Cup. A happy ending to his career in America is what’s best for the sport here. Thanks again Fan.
July 23rd, 2009 - 13:40
Oh yeah..hearing his answers and statements the past couple of weeks, I do believe he’ll be back in US/MLS after the World Cup.
Beckham that I know is not a giver, he likes challenges and he is a winner. He likes being in the spotlight, with the right reason of course. Especially when it comes to anything about football/soccer. So..if he back out of his contract after the WC, that means he is a giver, and I don’t think he likes that.
And hearing him talking genuinely excited about the new upcoming franchises, new stadiums (hopefully with the GRASS turf), and developing the youth academies and development in this sport, I think he WILL be back in the US after the World Cup, and continuing to be involved in the soccer development over there.