Beckham the Footballer vs Beckham the Celebrity

By: Daryl | February 14th, 2008

David Beckham the footballer vs David Beckham the celebrity It’s getting hard to tell what the balance between David Beckham the celebrity and David Beckham the footballer is. The most recent bit of Beckham the footballer news was him being dropped from Fabio Capello’s England team on the very understandable grounds that he hadn’t actually been playing any football. Minus one for Beckham the footballer.

The latest bit of celebrity news is that Becks new bff Snoop Doggy Dogg thought the man needed a better nickname. And so Becks was rechristened D Becks. Not the most original of new nicknames as it’s really just his old “Becks” nickname with his initial in front. But still, another plus one for Beckham the celebrity, and I’d say this tips the balance about 60/40.

Another way to think of this is: how many people think of Beckham as a footballer and how many people think of Beckham as a well-mannered good-looking English metrosexual with a former-pop-star wife? Well, let’s put it this way: the most popular Becks-related search term on The Offside is not “David Beckham free kick.” It’s “David Beckham naked.” And the second most popular? “David Beckham penis.”

So maybe D Becks (as we have to call him now) will always be more famous as a celeb than a footballer. And that’s fine. But let’s hope he at least does something on the field this year so he’s not just famous for being famous. We can all give him a pass for MLS 2007. Anyone can get injured, and he still won La Liga. which But Beckham has always maintained that he takes his football very very seriously, and I want to believe him.

So 2008 is huge. Both for Beckham as a footballer and for his short and long-term impact on American soccer. Will he be remembered as the good looking famous guy who came to LA to tool around with Tom Cruise and Snoop Dogg? Or will he be the high-profile footballer that helped legitimize MLS by backing up his fame with some stellar on-field perforrmances? We’ll start finding out on March 29 when MLS 2008 kicks off and Becks and LA Galaxy travel to Colorado Rapids.

[D Becks story via Macho Chip]

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PocketKings

To be very fair to FFF, Steven & Nick were not directing their anger at David Beckham, but at his "management team" and Lalas for their ignoring the soccer public. (albeit they do address David directly with open invitations to be on the show...not that he has a lot of say about where he does interviews. Unless he really took it to heart, and told his management team that he is determined to go on the show, they would probably talk him out of it).

Steven & Nick even went on to say that they would be like 2 little schoolgirls with a crush talking to Beckham. "What did it feel like scoring against Greece?" "How did you feel playing at Old Trafford?"

But I agree with all the anti-Lalas remarks. He did try to play "disappointed daddy" to Steven & Nick, but he couldn't pull it off. Then he had to dance his arse off & backpedal so he wouldn't seem like a shmuck.

My favorite Lalas moment, however, was not this one. It was the FFF interview with Lalas where he talked about his HATRED of everything Chivas USA (front office, players, team, & cheerleaders). Then the boys dismantled his team 3-0. Oh, the joy in my heart after every goal was scored!!!!

I hope he does it again. If not, I hope Chivas USA have it on tape to play before their first meeting as a motivational speech!!

In the immortal words of Forrest Gump - "Momma always says... Stupid is as stupid does."
Laurie

Jack, I would kill for a transcript of that show. Or a YouTube video. Well, maybe not technically, actually kill. But I'd be eternally grateful.
JustJack

To the point of the blog post here, I could care less if a great footballer does the schlock circuit as long as he delivers on the pitch. But a guy who can't be bothered with the folks who fill the seats and sing the songs and wear the colors... yeah, just don't care. Because of the injury thing, I'm willing to give him a last chance to prove things on the pitch, like he did in NZ post-season. I work in Hollywood and I just am unimpressed with celebrity. Show up, do your job, do it well so I can do mine and I'm happy. Don't show up, act like a diva and ignore me, you're fired. Period. Life's too short.
JustJack

I just finished watching FFF and Lalas definitely got served. He showed how he is pretty much a tool and I was howling the entire time. Lala actually tried to claim that Becks is still THE ambassador for American soccer by doing the ET, Inside Edition, Grammy's, Snoop Dogg circuit. I mean, come on, that kind of logic is why we have a Chimp in the 'House... it's no wonder Lala is considered a complete boob. He makes no sense, tries to pull the scolding mgr crap on two guys how know football on a level that Lala can only dream of ever attaining. I saved it, if I get a chance I'll type up a transcript of the exchange. It was classic. The poll question proved Nick and Steven's point that Beckham has damaged his rep by literally ignoring us, the footballing public in the U.S. If Becks doesn't perform a miracle on every pitch in the nation this season, I'm sorry the guy's little more than a laughing stock come October--I predict he won't have a prayer in hell's chance of making the England squad again.
bzygo

What's unfortunate for the MLS and fans of the MLS is that the most high profile team is also the most dysfunctional team, and ends up overshadowing the MLS successes in places like Houston - and to think AEG owns both those teams, talk about two totally different management styles.

As for Lalas calling in to FFF, I did not catch it but my understanding is that at one point Lalas basically implied that Fox Soccer Channel was too small of a media outlet for Beckham to appear on.
Daryl

Dave,

Honestly, no. I stopped watching FFF or listening to WSD a while back. I heard something about Lalas being on FFF recently but didn't know there'd been a "run-in" as you say. What happened exactly?
DC United

Lalas should be fired and never allowed near any pitch in the world. He thinks he's great because he is the GM of a team with Beckham on it. Well alexi, you are nothing more than a muppet, without any say over Beckham!
Laurie

Are there transcripts or replays of that Fox Football show anywhere? Anybody know?
daniel

hahaaha lalas got owned!
Dave's Football Blog

Say, this post wouldn't have anything to do with a recent TJ Simers column in the LA Times and a recent on-air run-in between Alexi Lalas and Fox Football Fone-In hosts Steven Cohen and Nick Webster, would it?