[Free] The Beckham Experiment: How the World's Most Famous Athlete Tried to Conquer America The Beckham Experiment: How the World's Most Famous Athlete Tried to Conquer America

EgQVzqvyI 6AYGViA36 bq3xItCXx KbgYTWxMI WokMn0VVB 5n4SWKc2S pbHNeCz0C lxxiKzV85 S668MW0Ou orVQtI0pL DlkI0HIK2 The Beckham Experiment: How the World's Most Famous Athlete Tried to NEgQyQDZg Conquer America EhhxbeLrF NX-77607 xJu5527CB US/Data/Biographies-Memoirs 27UyULJ0M 4.5/5 From 568 Reviews 72fze54Q8 Grant Wahl yjzh0fblf *Download PDF | ePub | DOC | audiobook | ebooks VGbSwf1Kx tKDAPjnhh mITx0IPBZ 0AzhCU5Bq fF2Ehh7tr 1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Great Insight in to American v1QvrzhUR (MLS) SoccerBy Sam PThis book did a great job of describing the USA's soccer XoTRY3DsL league, MSL or . It further described how PCOt2pQ1C fit in to it and changed it. As a season ticket holder for the Seattle Sounders, I bp37ZH6Fr thought the insight in to MSL was very interesting. I have read many books on vjGDlHqNc soccer and come across almost zero information on the MSL. The author was very KfXZTDnUS objective concerning everything and everybody he discussed.The book was more about those affected by Beckham before and after he came along than it is about Beckham himslf. There was great insight on .I was never a Beckham fan to begin with. After reading this book, I was left feeling that he is quite a pitiful person.If the book was focused on a more impressive player such as Donovan, I would have given the book 5 stars.1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Despite Beckham's outrage at the time of publication, this is not a uniformly negative portraitBy Andy OrrockI really enjoy Grant Wahl's articles in Sports Illustrated. Each one is a must-read. I think he's done more than anyone to bring soccer/football into the mainstream of American sporting consciousness. He's equal parts fan of both the international sport and the MLS. The world's full of experts who look condescendingly down their noses at the brand of the game practiced in the America's professional league. Wahl's not one of those. While he fully accepts the differences in quality of the MLS vs. European standard-bearers Premiere League/Serie A/Primer Liga/Bundesliga, he also takes the long view: who could of guessed 20 years ago how soccer has seeped into daily sporting life here? Wahl's world is one in which soccer will, ultimately, prevail as this country's Number 1 sport.Think of "The Beckham Experiment" as a 'long read' form of the quality journalism that Wahl delivers to his SI readership. He has inside access to the first two years of David Beckham's move to the LA Galaxy. Despite the highest of expectations, those two years were - from a professional standpoint - a mess for Beckham. Beckham's first season (2007) could be called "the injury year," the second season, the...trainwreck. As Wahl aptly puts it, "Welcome to the 2008 Los Angeles Galaxy, aka Dysfunction Junction." After detailing an unfathomable 12-game losing streak, Wahl pronounces his verdict: "Beckham's American adventure had officially turned into...the soccer equivalent of Ishtar or the Spruce Goose."Yes, three years on, the Galaxy ascended to the championship with Beckham still playing a leading role. But that in no way dismisses the reporting done by Wahl: that Beckham's early enthusiasm turned into petulance and less than full effort; that he did everything he could to escape his contract and flee to Milan; that he let his management company (19 Entertainment of American Idol fame) run roughshod over team management; and that his inherently bland, inward-drawing personality made him a poor steward of a ham-fistedly awarded team captaincy.Yet despite Beckham's outrage at the time of the book's hardcover publication, this is not a uniformly negative portrait of this worldwide icon. It pays testament to his amazing football skills (Wahl's clearly a smitten fan of the unique game that made Beckham great). And, it paints a compelling portrait of Beckham as a dedicated father...and as someone whose keen inter-personal skills simply can't be faked. Those skills are at the center of my favorite story in the book, involving Galaxy teammate Chris Klein:----- Affable and easygoing, Klein wasn't even bothered when his son chose to wear a No. 23 Beckham Galaxy jersey to the games instead of one with his dad's name on it. In fact, the jersey was part of Klein's favorite Beckham story. Before a game one night at the HDC, Klein introduced his son to Beckham, who was being treated on the training table. Carson Klein's eyes lit up when Beckham asked him some questions, and the Kleins returned to the locker room. But ten minutes later, Carson asked his father if Beckham could sign his jersey. Back in the training room, Beckham not only signed the jersey, but he personalized it: To Carson. "He remembered his name," Klein said. "David's got people coming in and out, all these requests, he's got an injury and all this pressure. But he meets my son, ten minutes go by, and he didn't even have to ask his name again. From then on he's always calling him over and talking to him. These are the things that you can never see and never know about somebody unless you're involved with them one- on-one."------1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Wahl's MasterclassBy J. BarringerBeckham is larger than life. L.A. is larger than life. The marriage between the two was as messy as it was inevitable. Grant Wahl, Sports Illustrated's veteran sportswriter, tackles the story expertly. How did one of the world's biggest soccer personalities arrive in the ' second- or third-tier soccer league? How, in a salary-cap league, did his multimillion-dollar salary affect his teammates who roomed two or three to an apartment and struggled to get by? How did his galactic personality and reputation impact Landon Donovan, team captain and one of the best-known American soccer players? The characters are as egotistical as they are memorable, and Wahl does a great job of capturing, with obvious love for the game but without rose-colored glasses, exactly what happened when L.A. staged "The Beckham experiment." This is a great read for any fans of the beautiful game, for sports fans in general, or even for fans of celebrities and celebrity culture.

In 2007, David Beckham, the golden boy of soccer, shocked the international sports world when he signed a five-year contract with an American team, the Los Angeles Galaxy. Under the direction of his manager, Simon Fuller, the mastermind behind American Idol and the Spice Girls, Beckham was ready for a monumental challenge and a risky adventurendash;ready, as Fuller put it, to earn his stripes Stateside. Could he pull off what no player had ever accomplished (including Peleacute; in the 1970s) and transform soccer into one of the most popular spectator sports in America? It was a bold experiment: failure meant a team, a league, a sport, and Beckham himself might miss their chance to hit primetime in the U.S.With unprecedented access to the Galaxy and one-on-one interviews with Beckham, veteran Sports Illustrated writer Grant Wahl focuses on the inner circle of the experiment: Beckham, Galaxy leading scorer Landon Donovan, Simon Fuller, controversial former coach Ruud Gullit, outspoken former Galaxy president Alexi Lalas, and Mrs. Victoria ldquo;Posh Spicerdquo; Beckham. Wahl takes readers behind the scenes, on the road with the team and inside the locker room, to reveal just what happened on and off the field when the most renowned player in the world left the glamour of European soccer to play in a country that has yet to fully embrace the sport. We find out what his teammates really think of their superstar captain, who was calling the shots behind the scenes, how Beckhamrsquo;s management conducted a shadow takeover of the Galaxy organization, and if the team plans to embrace himndash;or notndash;when he returns from AC Milan for the 2009 season.The Beckham Experiment is a no- holds-barred account of ego clashes and epic winless streaks, rivalries and resentments, big gambles and great expectations, cultural and class collisions, and ultimately the volatile mix of celebrity and professional sports. As Beckham embarks on his third season with the Galaxy, the question remains: even for a player the caliber of David Beckham, are some goals out of reach?From the Hardcover edition.