Beckham’s American dream turned nightmare?
by Administrator on Oct.05, 2008, under Soccer
He’s a mediocre player for a failing team in a terrible league. But the Galaxy star’s American adventure is not the disaster everyone foretold. Since he moved to the USA with his family nearly 18 months ago, one half of Beckham’s life has revolved around playing football. Recently it’s been going almost unthinkably badly. The other, however, has revolved around what you might call living the Los Angeles dream — and by all accounts, that bit’s been going very well indeed. At 33, the best years of his career are of course behind him, and his move to California in 2007 was a tacit admission that his life was entering a new phase. But the speed of his subsequent professional decline, and the ungainly manner in which his club and international careers are now disintegrating, may have caught him by surprise.
October 5th, 2008 on 2:00 pm
“He’s a mediocre player for a failing team in a terrible league.”
“Terrible league”, Belfast Telegraph? That’s a bit harsh. “Mediocre” league would be more accurate.
And no big news flash that he’s a “mediocre player”. He has a long history of being mediocre, outside the odd dead ball delivery.
October 5th, 2008 on 2:01 pm
He was signed by the MLS to create excitement for a league that was barely on the radar in US sports….and he did.
October 5th, 2008 on 2:01 pm
Agreed, TeddySalad. Though Beckham has never been exceptionally talented as a player, he has always been exceptionally pretty and marketable
October 5th, 2008 on 2:02 pm
have to disagree with most of the comments. I see the guy as still a tremendous talent, and someone whose contributions on the field have few equals. He is unfortunately part of a team that cannot offer enough options to consistently beat other teams. With only two top players (he and Landon), his contributions are minimized.
October 5th, 2008 on 2:03 pm
But he still has an awesome collection of Spice Girls CD’s!
October 5th, 2008 on 2:04 pm
The MLS is a retirement league for European footballers who want to live in the US. Beck’s pretty much done from playing competitive international football.
October 5th, 2008 on 2:06 pm
exactly. an overstated circumstance (mediocre player, terrible league, etc) from a place that boasts . . . . WHAT kind of top flight soccer? The first part of TeddySalads comment has it correct, though the rest of the post is dismissive hyperbole. Is he in his prime? No. But he is NOW at the age that people thought might be the age he comes over to the US. But he has been here for 2 years already. I am glad he came, glad he is here, and I enjoy watching him. On a much smaller scale, I have been on teams that dominated, then I moved to a team that could hardly win. It IS an adjustment, and it is normal for guys to struggle with it. But to his credit, he is making the most of it. I would hope they get some more talented players around him (more mid-level guys) and see the Galaxy make the playoffs. That would be nice. Thanks Becks, for helping soccer stateside. The rest of you all, move to England if you need to. The rest of us will support a budding league here, and see it through to success. Cheers!
October 5th, 2008 on 2:07 pm
He has done what he has been asked to do by a fairly bad team. What’s so bad about that? It happens all the time. The Belfast Telegraph has no right calling the MLS a bad league. It is not a bad league because it is not the best league.
October 5th, 2008 on 2:08 pm
If you are observant, you will note that few newspaper articles, and few posts, are ever very balanced and devoid of knee jerk emotional stupidity. Belfast article is another example. The person writing that article more than likely has no clue what the MLS is like. For him it is enough that people bash it, that it is something you can add to your list of “Why I hate America”, and it gives him/her an article that gets his editor off his back. And his readers will shout “hooray” and hoist another pint. And the reason it is added here is that T/R knows it will get reaction, posts, and traffic. And we all fell for it.
October 5th, 2008 on 2:09 pm
I wonder how the Hungarian League is.
No one expected Beckham to score 20 goals. What he did was have people take note of what we are doing over here. Its been a good thing, even if people hate him and his team isn’t very good (more so his defense is garbage).
October 5th, 2008 on 2:10 pm
No sympathy for Beckham here. He and Posh came to America thinking they were going to be big celebrities. What they have discovered is that we have no use for washed up has beens, who were not particularly talented to start with. I think that stunts such as bringing in Beckham actually set soccer in America back. Anyone who was lured into buying tickets and going to a game to see Beckham has to have come away with a bitter taste. I wish people would stop referring to Beckham as a superstar, he was not very good at anything in Europe either, except making headlines. If he doesn’t marry a Spice Girl we would have never heard of him.
October 5th, 2008 on 2:11 pm
He’s always been overrated. What’s new with that?