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“HE IS REALLY HUMBLE”
Lalas recently revealed Galaxy plans to tour both post-season and pre-season — Australia, Asia and England are among the potential venues – using Beckham as a draw to expand their celebrity worldwide. The ambitious marketing initiatives have included the unprecedented move of re-branding the LA Galaxy kit during the season, coinciding with Beckham’s arrival. Ticket sales have soared, with the Home Depot Center in Carson, California, packed whenever Beckham plays.
When Galaxy visited Toronto FC, the media went crazy. A “Beckham watch” followed and readers of Canada’s national newspapers learned where he shopped for jeans, where he dined and other nuggets usually reserved for the society pages. All this, and he had not even laced up his boots!
At every stop, Beckham makes appearances on behalf of the MLS. Following a practice session at New York’s Montclair State College, for instance, he was whisked away in an off-roader vehicle to attend a football clinic for inner city children in Harlem.
Again he turned on the charm.
“It’s definitely surreal,” Jazic continues, “especially when we travel with the team. When you see the people waiting outside the hotels, the paparazzi, all the people that go along with his lifestyle, it’s tremendous. And the way he handles it is absolutely superb. He is always willing to sign autographs, always smiling; with the lifestyle he has to live with and the way he just lives, it is pretty impressive. When we have a night out after a match, he comes out with us and so he is blending in. He’s a great guy. He is really humble. It’s almost like the way you perceive him in the media, he’s totally different when he is around us. He is quiet and polite and has a good sense of humour. He is just one of the lads in the locker room now.” It is hard to imagine. But Beckham’s arrival just might be the trigger to develop professional football in America. No doubt other world-class players will look at the MLS in a different light now. Five years from now we shall have the answer.

USD 250 MILLION IN 5 YEARS

Beckham’s first game as captain was against DC United in the MLS SuperLiga Cup semi-finals and when he scored a trademark free kick from just outside the box, he was immediately besieged by his team-mates. The goal was a relief to all. Many MLS teams had come under criticism after raising ticket prices for Beckham matches, and when he sat on the bench during games against Toronto FC and DC United, he was greeted with boos all around. Suddenly the decision to bring him to America was being questioned. But otherwise the response has been positive and once he started playing regularly, all was forgiven. More than 66,000 turned out at Giants Stadium when the New York Red Bulls hosted Galaxy on 18 August -the biggest crowd to ever attend an MLS game. Though the Red Bulls prevailed in a 5-4 free-for-all, Beckham was a hit, setting up three of his team’s goals.
Beckham-emblazoned jerseys were seen throughout the stadium and you could almost hear the cash registers ringing. And there is the rub. Money is at the root of professional football and it is no different in America. It has been widely reported Beckham would earn 250 million US dollars over his five-year tenure. “AEG pays for David Beckham and I will tell you that the numbers are not necessarily accurate,” Lalas reveals. “He stands to make a tremendous amount of money. He has a vested interest in this organisation doing well on and off the field. When we succeed, he succeeds. Let’s be honest, he is one of the few people in the world who can command this and he is worth it, and he has already demonstrated that both on and off the field in a very short period of time.”
Most of the money will be earned off the field. His actual salary for playing is reportedly USD 6.5 million a season. Pele came to the USA back in the 1970s with New York Cosmos, drawing similar attention. The comparisons are similar but the circumstances are vastly different. Today, satellite television and the growth of many professional sports has left football playing second fiddle to the major sports such as NFL football, basketball, baseball and ice hockey in the USA.
So is Beckham worth the money? “As far as David’s compensation goes, he is worth every penny,” Lalas counters emphatically. “There is a perceived madness when it comes to the money we are spending. We have already recouped our costs and we expect to continue to do so and reap the many rewards, not just the dollars and cents rewards. We have gone from the premier football brand within the USA to an international football brand and that is clearly due to the signing of David Beckham. The fact is there are kids all across the world and when they think about American football they think about Galaxy.”

AN ENGLISHMAN IN LA

Football in the USA and Major League Soccer (MLS) were never much in the limelight until David Beckham arrived at Los Angeles Galaxy last July. How is the famous and glamorous footballer faring in his new home?

Amidst the flashing of paparazzi cameras: screaming girls and the motorcades normally reserved for pop stars, David Beckham touched down in Los Angeles this past summer, bent on raising the American consciousness of football to another level.
Having signed for Los Angeles Galaxy, one of 13 existing Major League Soccer (MLS) franchises, brand Beckham was immediately resurrected. Cynics suggested that, at the age of 32, he recognised his athleticism was on the decline and that the MLS was a second-rate professional league where has-beens go to play out their careers. Beckham himself sees it differently.
“I am coming, not to be the superstar but to be part of the team, work hard and hopefully win things,” Beckham told reporters upon arrival. “It is about the football. I am coming to make a difference and would like to take the sport to another level. I am not saying my coming to LA is going to make football the biggest sport in America because that is going to be very difficult to achieve. But I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t believe I could make a difference and take football to a different level.”
Forgotten for the moment is the fact he had gloriously overturned Real Madrid manager Fabio Capello’s negative assessment of him, leading the giant club to the Spanish league title. Capello publicly wished he could persuade Beckham to stay in Spain and renege on his MLS contract. But that was never on the cards. Even England manager Steve McClaren had a change of heart, turning to the former captain after qualifying for EURO 2008 seemed a far-fetched dream. Early indications are that the trans-Atlantic travel involved could put a damper on Beckham’s England plans beyond official FIFA matches but there is no doubting his loyalty to the Three Lions.