There has been several anticipated transfers this summer and rumor mills have been churning stories endlessly of who could end up where. But undoubtedly the biggest has been David Beckham's arrival in the US. He penned the deal in January itself and Galaxy and MLS have been waiting for over 6 months for him. They even adjusted their playing schedules to have more games in the latter part of the season to accommodate Beckham. Well it all looked like a dream but what does Alexis Lalas get? He has the worst nightmare come true. An injured Beckham who has been out for 8 weeks and who has been not training after the last day of the Spanish League.
Sports critics has been really tough on the golden boy in football. Well Beckham has not had it easy in fact no one in football has. He came through the ranks of Manchester United and almost played there for a decade and finally the principle of Club is bigger than the player came up. He was forced out of Man U. I like Beckham for the sporting value though people only know him more for his commercial value. The world's best free kick specialist was found to have the highest average in distance (yards) covered in a single match. The professionalism and commitment on field is really top draw.
In 2003 when Man U decided to sell the then 29 year old because of a fall out with Manager Alex Ferguson, Barcelona won the deal but the Englishman refused. All time rival club Real Madrid came in and snapped up Beckham, and Barca snapped up Real target Ronaldinho from PSG. Well how did the two transfers equate on the field? In the four years following that Barca were crowned Spanish champions twice and also some excellent performances in the Champions League. On the other hand Real went through 4 years trophy less, though they boasted the likes of Figo, Zidane, Ronaldo and Beckham on their rolls.
So why did Real buy Beckham? Forbes magazine recently claimed that the benefits Real reaped of buying Beckham was not small. The first pre-season Real toured South-East Asia because of same reason. The following seasons they toured Asia and USA. Real Madrid store sold 5000 jerseys in the first hour of Beckham signing for them. Real had to spend 20 odd M for Beckham but Forbes has claimed that Beckham merchandise brought in 500M for Real Madrid over the course of 4 years.
Well Beckham has joined MLS side and has not played a full match yet. He is expected to earn 50M$ of which 10M$ is his salary and the remaining is merchandise revenue. Galaxy at Dallas was a full house, but the fans could not even see any playing time of Beckham. They had to be contend with the Englishman in a tuxedo on the Bench. Last night Beckham played 28 mins of the Galaxy's match against DC united and there were 46,000 fans in the stadium. People say the first season Pele played in the MLS this was the case. But i doubt it. Each time he touched the ball there were camera flashes going off. Well the Beckham charsima did not work for Galaxy as they lost the match 1-0 and had 10 men on the field most of the time.
Galaxy Beckham authentic jersey's are going at close to a 100 bucks in the market. NBC already aired a reality show on Victoria the former spice girl wife of David Beckham titled "Beckham comes to US" which was shown in prime time.
Honestly i have had enough with the press writing all ga ga about each step Beckham makes on the field. Well yes he is one of the most popular sportsman on the planet but he is a good player too. Lets focus on what Beckham can do to better Galaxy as a team who has the second worst record in MLS. I have not read a single article any where on what value addition Beckham can bring to LA Galaxy or for the popularity of MLS in the US. Honestly i dont think anyone cares. I saw this cracker of a game between FC Dallas and Columbus Crew on Saturday. Columbus Crew has Barros Schellotto in their ranks, the former Argentine superstar who already has 4 goals and 8 assits in the competition. He seemed to be a step above everyone on the field in terms of his leadership and play making skills. Dallas pulled off a miracle in stoppage time, playing with 10 men when their tall center back scored the winning header.
Chicago fire has Blanco, i saw a game of theirs and Blanco showed the class of his passing game and how he controlled the forwards to play some good one-two plays....
The person who has taken MLS by storm is Columbian star Juan Pablo Angel, the former Aston
Villa striker is proving his class. Considering these players and the hype these players are not getting, the press is still talking about Beckham who is still struggling to make an impact here. If it is the hair styles and the number of tattoos, Beckham hits the front page.
I had read 5 years back on a sky sports reporter in US, who was at a party of journalists. He met a woman who asked him "So you are from Beckham's country". Seemingly pleased that an American knew about football the reporter asked her "So do you watch a lot of soccer"? and she responded "oh... does he play soccer? so cute......"
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