The die is cast. MLS opened the bottle of competitive bidding amongst clubs for players, and the genie has already granted its first wish to Anschutz Entertainment Group and the Los Angeles Galaxy.
David Beckham is bound for the USA, a country disdainful of his game but absolutely enthralled with his looks, his clothes, his tattoos, his life and his wife. The stampede to buy season tickets in numerous MLS cities reflects not his ability as a soccer player but rather his irresistible allure to those obsessed with celebrity. J-Lo at Home Depot? The very idea!
Either way, MLS will take it. The league is no longer irrelevant.
ôHe really does want his legacy to be helping to grow the sport in this country and, yes, he'll get paid handsomely for that, but we'll benefit greatly from it and have someone in our league that's gotten more attention than we ever had perhaps in the history of this sport,ö said MLS commissioner Don Garber.
If celebrity can ratchet up credibility, MLS and AEG have gambled shrewdly. Since he replaced Doug Logan in 1999 as commissioner, Garber has fought for simple recognition, much less acceptance and respect.
ôThe most exciting aspect of my last seven years was to be part of the credibility boost we had after the 2002 World Cup,ö says Garber. ôAll of a sudden, instead of being at a cocktail party and having everybody say, 'What is M-S-L?', and not really understanding how good a national team we had, all of a sudden we had credibility.
ôThis has taken our credibility to a higher level, the fact that AEG is bullish enough on our league to make this kind of investment and the fact David would want to do it.ö
Beckham wasn't raised on glamour and glitter and by most accounts has retained all, or nearly all, of his boyhood upbringing in east London. His hero is Bryan Robson, an England and Manchester United star midfielder who fused remarkable talent with unquenchable spirit and determination.
In his autobiography, ôBeckham: Both Feet On the Ground,ö a photo shows a grinning 11-year-old Beckham shaking hands with another United legend after he'd won the Bobby Charlton Skills School competition. Beckham would follow both Charlton and Robson into United history and as England captains, although he didn't mesh right away with the players from Manchester.
Beckham writes: ôGary [Neville] says they had me down as a flashy little Cockney. I can understand why. It wasn't because I was loud or anything, but when were handed out our uniforms, I'd always end up with the nicest tracksuit and the best-fitting boots. I happened to get on really well with the equipment manager, Norman Davies, and he just looked after me.ö
His astonishing popularity and incredible wealth emerged from very modest origins. Yet somewhere was ingrained a sense of style that to some critics, overrides his actual ability.
FAMILY VALUES. Beckham would watch his dad play for Waldham Lodge in the East End and after the game, while everyone else was tipping a few in the clubhouse at the postmatch party, he'd be on the field. ôIt was where I started taking free kicks,ö he says in his autobiography.
He writes, ôI'd stand on the edge of the penalty area and chip a dead ball towards goal. Every time I hit the bar it was worth 50 pence extra pocket money from my dad that week. And, just as important, a pat on the back.ö
Beckham describes his dad as a capable center forward forever wandering offside and a wonderfully patient coach. He shared the special bond that fathers often form with their only son; David, like all active boys, dearly wanted a brother to play [soccer] with. His sister Lynne was 3 when he was born and had no interest in soccer; when he was 5, instead of a brother, his mother gave birth to another sister, Joanne. Beckham cried, but soon discovered his little sister did have some attributes. ôBut we got on fine: if I wanted her to go in goal in the back garden, she never said no,ö Beckham writes.
ON HOLIDAY. Former U.S. international Jovan Kirovski was a teammate of Beckham's on the Man United youth teams in the early 1990s. In a 2002 interview, he recalled the former teammate he'd see again three years later when Real Madrid came to Home Depot Center to play the Galaxy.
ôOur practices were competitive,ö said Kirovski of United's training sessions and scrimmages. ôYou had to be competitive ù just look at the players that were out there. The reserve games aren't always that great, depending on who you're playing, but our team always felt pressure because it was Manchester United.
ôEverything they do ù the hotels, the facilities, the training ù was supposed to be first-class and their academy was set up the same way. David was just one of a bunch of great players. Paul Scholes, the Neville brothers [Phil and Gary], Nicky Butt. There were a lot of other guys you might never have heard of who were just as good.ö
(This article originally appeared in the February 2007 issue of Soccer America Magazine.)