It was announced last week that David Beckham would be an ex-Real Madrid player come June and soon to become part of the Los Angeles Galaxy thereafter. David Beckham is quite the stellar star in the UK, but can his star continue to shine in a country whose favorite national past time is baseball?
He may have given his kids strange names, but David Beckham is 100% committed to sons, Brooklyn and Romeo.
David Beckham is multi-talented and has capitalized upon those talents well, as has his wife Victoria. He is also a lifestyle brand in and of himself. Steve listed a while back some of the many ad campaigns that Beckham has been involved in. Since then he has come out with a His and Her fragrance with his wife and now the $250 million dollar contract to play soccer here in the US. That means $50 million per year to play a sport that many in the US don’t care much about. Ok, I actually love Soccer second to Football, however I know I am in the minority.
I decided to ask a few Sports Bloggers what their thoughts were on Beckham coming to the US and the very enticing price tag. Geoff Young at Knuckle Curve made a good point regarding David Beckham’s contract at $50 million per year. Baseball is considered America’s pastime with the highest paid player, Alex Rodriguez, being paid $25.2 million a year. When I heard this, I also decided to look into who the highest paid NFL player was and his salary. Michael Vick gets $23,102,750 million each year for his contract with the Atlanta Falcons, while Donovan McNabb signed a long term contract for $105 million over 10 years, however in Football there are no guaranteed contracts.
James Edwards at Squib Kick thinks that David Beckham will generate new interest in Soccer here in the US, but he doubts that he will make it a popular sport. This may be true. Thirty years ago when Pele played soccer, he made $7 million for a three-year contract with the New York Cosmos. With today’s salary inflation, that is about $26+ million dollars, nothing near what Beckham is getting. Pele was a huge sensation, but was never able to make Soccer a hit in the US. I think Beckham will definitely generate new interest, but I’m not sure he will increase that interest to even remotely compare to baseball or football.
However, Beckham is very different from Pele in many ways and I have to think that the Los Angeles Galaxy knows this and would be the reason to lure Beckham to play here in the US. David Beckham is not just a Soccer star, he is a celebrity and one that is good at generating buzz with everything he touches turning to gold.
What do you think?
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