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Anorak News | David Beckham Is “Over-Aged, Overrated And Overpaid”

David Beckham Is “Over-Aged, Overrated And Overpaid”

by | 26th, July 2007

THE New York Times writer Will Leitch was doing well until he got onto George Best. He was too elfin to break your nose – but he might shag your girlfriend:

DAVID BECKHAM’S gimpy 13-minute Major League Soccer debut for the Los Angeles Galaxy on Saturday against the English powerhouse Chelsea didn’t impress the critics who feel he’s an over-the-hill player being shoved down our throats by a publicity machine. It seems Beckham’s arrival on our shores is accomplishing something one wouldn’t think possible: It’s uniting those who worship the global game of soccer and those who can’t stand it, on the ground that Beckham is over-aged, overrated and overpaid.

Many have compared Beckham’s arrival to the failed Pelé experiment with the New York Cosmos in the ’70s, but that was an entirely different red card. Pelé was a carnival sideshow, meant to enlighten us ugly Americans to the beauties of a game we didn’t really understand. That’s not what’s happening here — soccer appreciation here has matured in the United States to the point where casual fans can recognize quality play.

Thus Beckham’s value is not to soccer aficionados, but to us average sports fans. And the genius of bringing him here as opposed to any other player is not just that Americans who otherwise couldn’t care less are talking about Major League Soccer; it’s that Beckham has always, in sensibility, been more American than British.

England’s current soccer obsession is Wayne Rooney, a snarling, pub-crawling, double-barreled shotgun of a brawler. He’s in the tradition of George Best, the hard-drinking miscreant who would just as soon break your nose as execute a graceful corner kick. If Rooney had come here, there’d be nothing left of the Minnesota Thunder but some shinguards and a few strands of hair. But Beckham? He wouldn’t look out of place guest-judging on “American Idol.”

American Idol is produced by 19 entertainment. So it Brand Beckham. Oh…



Posted: 26th, July 2007 | In: Reviews Comments (7) | TrackBack | Permalink