David Beckham's Latest Challenge

CNN's Anderson Cooper Profiles The Soccer Superstar

(CBS)  Beckham's arrival in Los Angeles last July was greeted by the soccer faithful as the second coming; 700 members of the international media turned out at the Galaxy's stadium to get a glimpse of Beckham and his wife. But on the field his first season was mostly a disappointment.

Beckham didn't end up playing many games for the Galaxy last year. "It wasn't many at all. It was a nightmare, to be honest."

It was a nightmare because Beckham arrived with an injured ankle and only played in five major league games. The Galaxy had a losing season, and there were concerns Beckham was past his prime.

"There were some writers in England who, when it was announced that you were coming here, said that you were coming here to hang out on the beach and, you know, cash a big check," Cooper remarks.

"The beach thing is close," Beckham jokes.

"Some of them looked at it almost as a semi-retirement," Cooper says.

"My answer is, 'No.' Because I'm passionate about the game. I'm passionate about this move. I'm passionate about the fact that, you know, this sport can grow here. And the potential is huge here," Beckham says.

It's not the first time an international star has been lured by the potential of American soccer: in 1975, the year Beckham was born, Brazil's Pelé, widely considered the best player ever, was hired by the New York Cosmos in the struggling North American Soccer League. He helped build interest in the sport, but the Cosmos and the league eventually went out of business.

"All due respect to Pele, David's unique. He has an unbelievable personality and is a great ambassador," says Tim Leiweke, the CEO of AEG, the company that owns the L.A. Galaxy.

Leiweke says despite Beckham's injury, the move has already paid off. Since Beckham's arrival, attendance at all Major League Soccer games is up nine percent; on average, about 17,000 people now come to watch the games. So far they've sold around 300,000 Beckham jerseys. It's become the number one selling soccer jersey in the world.

"In terms of what he's making, what can you say about the deal?" Cooper asks Leiweke.

"David Beckham had a good year. You know, I don't know his endorsements and I stay out of that. That's his business. But from our standpoint when we sat down on a piece of paper and said to David, 'Here's what we think you can make here,' he did better than that," Leiweke says. "And I think he's happy with that. Amazingly I don't think he cares. Simon cares."

"Simon" is entertainment mogul Simon Fuller. He's the man who created "American Idol," and as David Beckham's manager is the architect of the unprecedented deal that not only pays a $5.5 million salary, but also gives Beckham a large share of Galaxy ticket sales, merchandise, and concessions.

[sweetlucy110]

do you know he open his blog on a free interracial dating club %uFF08%uFF08%uFF08intimatemingle.com%uFF09%uFF09%uFF09.he must hope his fans go there to support him, but his pics in the blog are reeally good.

[all_bad]

I switched to "Americas Funniest Videos" when soccer stuff came on. Us real men still think soccer is played by ***** little foreigners with funny last names. They have never addressed the problem of 1-0 matches decided by a foul.

[dal0013621]

The segment on David Beckham contained a number of untruths and some typical CBS fabrications.
David Beckham is not the best soccer player in the world. The title is given yearly by FIFA with the Golden Ball award. the present holder is Ricki Kaka, a Brazilian playing for ACMilan.
There was no World Cup in 2001 but England beat Greece for the right to participate in the 2002 World Cup in South Korea.
England, even with David Beckham, did not even qualify for the recently played European Championship played in Switzerland-Austria and won by Spain.
The so-called MSL is not recognized as a major soccer league by FIFA. Every year there is a world championship for clubs, played in Japan between the best club in the Americas and the European Champions'' League champions. This last December ACMilan beat Boca Juniors of Argentina for that title. The LA Galaxie players watched the game on television but did not understand what was going on.
As for the World Cup, there are qualifications games played this year among nations in all continents for the right to participate in the final tournament. Two teams are exempted from the qualifications, the present title holder Italy and the host country South Africa. The US will have to qualify by beating world powers such as Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago.
Anderson Cooper joins the list of CBS news inventors Dan Rather and Scott Pelley.
SHAME!

[wyobeau]

I enjoyed the segment on Beckham and wish him all the luck over here in the States. I also enjoyed playing intramural soccer in high school and college, but catching a game on TV? No thanks. Its like watching so many flies on a window pane - apparently the participants are really involved. I''ll stick with with the NFL.

[mikziv]

I think that it would be safe to say that when David Beckham was a little boy playing soccer that he played because he loved the game and practiced because he wanted to get better at the game he loved ...and wasn''t practicing because he thought that it would lead to the amount of income that he earns today. What I am leading up to is... all you haters shouldn''t be slamming him because he achieved success, and fame, at the game he loved as a boy (and you didn''t). I am positive that if you were in his shoes and some corporation wanted to throw multi millions of dollars at you to endorse their product (assuming that you actually like the product and it is a quality product) that you would do the same exact thing.
It also appears to me that he loves his wife and she loves him so you haters naturally have to hate him for that too.
He seems like a genuinely nice person to me and it occurs to me that he must have done something right somewhere down the line of his life to be so fortunate. So... stop being jealous and stop hating other people just because their have achieved fame and fortune.

[jbk14]

GO BECKHAM GO

[perkerk]

The biggest problem with Beckham is that he''s an impediment to a really great team. When he''s playing, there''s a hole in the field around him where balls aren''t won and attacking opportunities are lost. On a less than spectacular team, though, he makes a good addition. What''s really unfortunate is that he has the ability to make very long, accurate passes but lacks the vision to see the plays happening in real-time in order to create chances at goal.

George Best (who IS one of the greatest footballers in history) described Beckham well - "He cannot kick with his left foot, he cannot head a ball, he cannot tackle and he doesn''t score many goals. Apart from that he''s all right."

[usbrit-2009]

Posted by larsz

I think Beckham used to be brilliant when he played with Manchester United, but he has been on a slide ever since. As for getting the young stars over here from Europe, remember they''re making top baseball player salaries over there. No-one could afford to pay them that meuch money to play a "second-class" sport over here. One interesting point - I was watching Fulham vs. Newcastle on FoxSoccer this weekend - five of the players participating were Americans - quite a turnaround.

[lauren0211]

Get real, he may be a nice guy and a great soccer player, but it is all about money

[larsz-2009]

i can4t help laughing as i4m reading the comments and and is struck by the ignorance some have when it comes to soccer and beckham as an athlete.
beckham is a fantastic player both on and off the field. But i guess some of you just doesn4t know much about the world outside of the US, except what you might read in people4s magazine.

[gonners08]

Without a doubt he is a genuine nice guy and his off pitch reputation performs much better than his on pitch. In terms of marketing tool, he is a dream icon for many companies. However, in terms of football (or soccer), he never is the best. If he wants to promote football (or soccer) as a main stream sport in US, I don''t think it is going to happen. What this game needs are far greater than Beckham. Pele and many others tried but failed. To start I think the league needs to attract more talented players and to attract viewers all round the world. Look at how those Europeans did. Their leagues are very competitive and technically skilled. US needs players like Zinedine Zidane (unfortunately he retired), Diego of Werder Bremen, Kaka of AC Milan, Lionel Messi of Barcelona, Cristiano Ronaldo of Man. Utd, Cesc Frabregas of Arsenal and many more NOW (not until they are in their 30s) in order to attract more people to watch the game. Americans need to be educated how to enjoy and appreciate "The Most Beautiful Game in the World".

[usbrit-2009]

I get sooooo tired of soccer being put down in this country. At least when we have a soccer world champion more than one country competes unlike football and baseball. Oh yes, they tried a World cup in baseball didn''t they, and the US didn''t make it past the first round. The US soccer team did better then that in the last World Cup!!!

[chuegevera]

I just can not imagine why Berkam is soo famous. He is not among the best 100 players of the world and he never won any major tournament. the reality is that England who never won any major europeen or world tournamnet, nor had any major player winning a europeen scale trophy needed absolutely to create a start from anything. So berkam was born

[barbaraf4]

I suspect Beckham is a has-been. I think he has been on injured-reserve ever since he moved to LA. He seems like a nice guy; he certainly knows how to market himself.

[drivelphobe]

No one cares about that stupid soccer in the USA except the illegals. This hype isn''t going to work in this country. Who gives a *** about this scam to make a fortune. I am sick of hearing about him and his arrogant, money-grubbing wife. Send them back to Europe.

[cdfoxtrot]

Good to know there''s nothing much happening in the world today.

[librablue-2009]

Oh yeah and something tells me that there was a lot of Photoshopping going on in that Beckham underwear add! Ha!

[librablue-2009]

Frankly, I only watched this interview because of Anderson Cooper, but in my opinion this fluff on %u201CMr. Posh%u201D was way below his abilities. He must have had an extra couple of minutes to kill. I don%u2019t see what all the %u201Cfuss%u201D is about, Beckham seems rather dull and conceited to me and next to Anderson he is homely. Those gross tattoos are a real turn off. I was much more impressed with Anderson%u2019s tatooless bulging biceps.

[sgtrds]

I soooooooooooooooo don''t care................

[ameliadh]

You don''t have to worry about watching 60 mins tonite, it was bumped by Basketball!! My Dish network Tivo will not have it :(