Z/Web

Author: Grant Wahl

This is the “controversial” book about David Beckham’s coming to Major League Soccer and his first couple of years with the L.A. Galaxy. It’s a decent book, told chronologically, about his arrival and experiences, but there are several flaws. First, the book really doesn’t give us much insight into Beckham. We learn far more about minor Galaxy players. David himself is hardly quoted at all. That’s disappointing because many aspects of the book are theories as to what David is thinking or wanting and there is no conclusion there because David hasn’t given his perspective (other than canned media presentations which aren’t illuminative). However, I did enjoy learning about those minor Galaxy players — a book about them would be more interesting than this one. But the book’s biggest flaw is that its structure makes it sound like a bio or documentary but the ending is more like an essay with the author clearly making his point that he thinks the David Beckham signing was a mistake and has been a disaster. That is poor writing on two levels, one in that it is switching genres in mid-book, and another in that the conclusion is seriously flawed because the “Beckham experiment” is not yet finished. This book is doing the equivalent of judging a race at the halfway point: there is still much to happen and we don’t yet know the final outcome. Really, in the case of Beckham, the final judgment will have to take place a decade or two from now when we can see the overall impact he has had on U.S. soccer. How he fares for a season or two with the Galaxy is minor in comparison to that lofty goal. Note that I don’t disagree that the Beckham signing has been mishandled in some ways and there have been problems; I just don’t agree with the conclusion that it was a mistake. It seems to me Wahl is wanting to make his book more controversial or dramatic by concluding that, possibly on advice from his editors (it feels like a tacked on conclusion). Unfortunately, the bottom line is that this book doesn’t get you much (if any) insight into Beckham, most of the material is soccer history you already know if you’ve been following MLS and the Galaxy, and the conclusions of the book are misguided and premature (for instance, the Galaxy is having a good season this year but that is not in the book). Still, it’s an interesting read for the soccer fan, but I would much rather see this book rewritten in twenty years to give us a more objective perspective.