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The Beckham Experiment
Grant Wahl
How the World's Most Famous Athlete Tried to Conquer America
Crown
July 2009
On Sale: July 14, 2009
304 pages
ISBN: 030740787X
EAN: 9780307407870
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction Sports
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
adventure–ready, as Fuller put it, to earn his stripes
Stateside. Could he pull off what no player had ever
accomplished (including Pelé 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 “Posh Spice” 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 Beckham’s management
conducted a shadow takeover of the Galaxy organization, and
if the team plans to embrace him–or not–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?
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