Beckham Bends to Boot MSL
David Beckham, who was supposed to bring marketing buzz to Major League Soccer in the U.S., made a distinctly ungracious exit last week on his way to play for A.C. Milan for three months on loan, saying he was looking forward to getting back to playing “real football” again.
When Beckham gleefully accepted a five-year, $250 million deal last year to play for the L.A. Galaxy, he was heralded as brightest international star of a league that’s desperately looking for respect. No one’s going to confuse the level of play in the MSL to Italy’s top-flight Serie A, but Beckham – who’s also collecting $1 million in endorsements here in the colonies – didn’t really need to reiterate the point.
Upon his arrival in Milan after a less-than-stellar season in La-La land, Becks declared it had always been his dream to don Milan’s red and black. Asked why he’d omitted that salient detail from his autobiography, he reportedly said, “I thought I had. I’ll write another one and mention it.”
The Milan fans are appropriately unimpressed at the prospect of Beckham in the red and black. The 33-year-old striker is widely perceived to be past his prime and the move is seen as more a marketing ploy to sell Milan jerseys than it is to bolster the star-studded squad’s bench – where he figures to be spending much of his time. He’s still bending free kicks better than he bends his words – but then, continental soccer fans and their U.S. counterparts are welll accustomed to the boorish behavior of the athletic elite.
It goes with the territory. As the Los Angeles Dodgers celebrated their victory over the star-crossed Chicago Cubs in the National League Division Series, Manny Ramirez – who was dramatically traded from the Boston Red Sox to the Dodgers in the heat of the pennant race – was asked what he had to say to the Red Sox faithful. “I don’t have nothin’ to say to the fans in Boston. I’m in L.A. now,” the mercurial Ramirez snapped in his mindless, spontaneous style.
The big money of outlandish multi-year deals isn’t the most important thing to self-impressed performers like Beckham and Ramirez – it’s the only thing. And the fans who feel any affinity for them are deluding themselves all the way to the box office.
