Ga Ga for David Beckham The uber-sexy soccer god and family man is the world's #1 athlete, except in the U.S.

The San Francisco Chronicle  Tuesday, October 28, 2003

 

(Madrid, Spain) We love our macho men in America: Rocky, Babe Ruth, Kobe Bryant, Donald Rumsfeld. California, of course, has taken it to a whole new level. But enough politics. Let's talk about the most popular athlete in the world, and why he's virtually unknown in the United States. I speak, of course, of David Beckham.

By the time Beckham was 13, the working-class kid from London had already signed a contract with the powerhouse soccer team Manchester United. This summer, he made the jump to an even more iconic team, Real Madrid. At the tender age of 28, he is readily acknowledged as the most popular athlete in the world. His autobiography was recently published simultaneously in 12languages in 50 countries. His golden-boy visage is plastered on product ads from Barcelona to Beijing, he is married to the former Posh Spice, and his presence has probably resulted in more wet crotches, both male and female, around the world than anybody since Elvis.

And yet, the chance that this sports god will ever sow his seed in the ever-fertile ground of American popular culture is unlikely. Why? For one thing, football (what Americans call soccer), the world's favorite sport, is ignored by much of the U.S. sporting press. For another thing, Beckham has a penchant for wearing sarongs, kissing his fellow players on the cheek and getting his hair done. He's already served as an inspiration for the British sleeper hit film "Bend It LikeBeckham," and he is reportedly popular in the gay community. As the U.K.'s Gay Times asked, "Is it any wonder that benders like Beckham?"

Fashionistas of the world have dubbed Beckham a "metrosexual" -- a straight guy into fashionable clothes, unrestrained shopping and elaborate hairstyles. Indeed, the permutations of Beckham's blond locks, including cornrows, a shaved head and something called a "fauxhawk," are lovingly chronicled by theEuropean sporting press with far more attention than was ever given to Sammy Sosa's bat.

Even in his native United Kingdom, the birthplace of soccer hooligans, thisathlete, who freely admits to being in touch with his feminine side, has charmedeven the most hardened columnists.

In reviewing his autobiography, "Beckham: Both Feet on the Ground," the British right-wing tabloid The Mail on Sunday wrote of "Beckham's unusually emotionalresponse to the world, and his need for family. He is, you feel, a man who is more comfortable worshipping than being worshipped.

"Since childhood, it is his father's love that he has sought, and continues to seek," the review continues. "After being [kicked out of the game during] the 1998 World Cup," it quotes Beckham as saying, 'I fell into Dad's arms and started sobbing.'"

In an effort to unlock the secret of Beckham's allure, I recently attended his fourth match with Real Madrid (that's pronounced "re-al," meaning "royal"). Myresearch began in the Irish pub located near the team's stadium, where a gaggle of drunk Englishmen informed me that the club already sports an unprecedented array of the world's top players, including Brazil's Ronaldo andFrance's Zinedine Zidane. And, while Beckham is one of the best midfielders of all time, nobody thinks he was brought in just for his passing ability.

"Everybody is interested in Beckham now in Spain -- it doesn't matter if you like football or not," writes Lourdes Garzon, features editor at the Spanish edition of Marie Claire. "He is a new kind of celebrity."

Real Madrid claims 100 million fans worldwide, and sales of Beckham T-shirts, at some $85 a pop, are expected to bring in $160 million over the next three years in Japan alone. His sponsorships, though modest by the American standards of those of Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods, are in a different stratosphere than those of any other football player. (Still, this is Europe, where there is universal health insurance, so players don't need to be paid as much).

For the fans, the merchandising is almost an afterthought. Beckham's appeal is sexy yet comforting -- his image is of the perfect man around the house, adds Garzon. Indeed, futbol, as it's called here, is less commercial than a championshipLittle League game. First of all, Real Madrid plays in Bernabeu Stadium, namedafter a legendary team manager, not a bankrupt airline or an indicted energyconsortium. Advertising displays in the 80,000-seat park are discreet. At halftime, everybody chows on tinfoil-wrapped sandwiches they brought from home.

But as the players step onto the field, Beckham-mania ripples through the crowd. Everybody is watching the newcomer, and the distinctly non-Spanish name crackles throughout the bleachers.

Amid the patchy styles and overgrown rugs of the other players, Beckham stands out with his blond mane done up in a samurai-style topknot. As RealMadrid hypes itself up to engage Marseille, Beckham gives several of histeammates a manly peck on the cheek. I guess it is the European equivalent of linebackers patting each other on the butt, but somehow a kiss seems more intimate.

Beckham's charisma is apparent even to a soccer neophyte like myself. During the game, a player tangles with Beckham and crashes to the ground. Beckham thrusts out his hand to help him up with no hint of emotion -- James Bond on the soccer field.

"Beckham has made football sexy for women," says Silvana Carretero, a youngMadrilena who works in public relations. Although nobody in her office is muchinterested in futbol per se, her colleagues have suddenly lined the walls withBeckham posters. She couldn't come up with the words to describe his greatness, so I suggested the Nietszchian "ubermensch." She thought that sounded fine -although, given California's new governor, I probably spoke too soon. But who knows? Maybe Beckham will be elected president of the European Union.

Since Beckham arrived in Spain, the number of photographers on the field has tripled, according to my escort and soccer interpreter Charlie, a novelist who moonlights as a sports columnist for a British weekly.

Beckham's effect on the crowd is visceral. During the game, even the normally laconic Charlie, a 6'6" Londoner, emitted schoolboyish shrieks of "C'mon, Dave!" The so-serious Spanish football press was initially skeptical of the Brit, dismissinghim as a pretty boy who is good for nothing but selling T-shirts. But his aggression, determination to win and physical prowess on the field have won them over. Marca, Spain's biggest sports daily, remarked, "Beyond the ad campaigns, the dyed hair, the changes of look, the premature autobiographyand the famous singer wife, the Englishman is making it plain that he is also aquite fabulous football player."

The Spanish edition of Marie Claire recently put Beckham on its cover, yet he isthe opposite of the typical playboy sports star, writes the magazine's Lourdes Garzon. He is always telling everybody how much he loves his wife and his two boys, Brooklyn and Romeo (a hundred bucks says he used Madonna's babynaming consultant), and he is seen as an attentive father. In his recent autobiography, he talks about his wife's party-organizing skills as much as his football playing. He also chronicles one of the first breaking points with Manchester United, after his manager yelled at him for missing practice becausehe was baby-sitting Brooklyn while his wife went shopping. "He is like the new man we would all like to have at home," Garzon adds. "Other Spanish stars, like filmmaker Pedro Almodovar, appeal more to the head. But the British soccer star's appeal is emotional, physical and sexual. He's notintellectual, but he doesn't need it." It occurs to me that Beckham will never generate the hype in the United States that he has prompted throughout the rest of the world. Family men who are supportive of their teammates don't sell a lot of T-shirts in the U.S. of A. And there's not much precedent for a player who attends fashion shows because he is interested in the clothes, not the models.

But in the rest of the world, Beckham worship continues unabated. As the graffition the wall of a rowdy bar in Madrid I visited recently put it, "Pope no, Beckhamyes!" Sam Loewenberg is a journalist based in Madrid. This is his first sports article.