The Ballad of Becks and Posh

The arrival in the U.S. of global soccer star David Beckham, signed on a massive multiyear contract to the LA Galaxy, occasioned no end of media coverage. The hoopla surrounding this event saw the latest effort to change the national conversation regarding the grudging acceptance of soccer as a mass American sport. But the real story about U.S. men's soccer, as this essay argues, is the embryonic Latinization of the game along lines similar to Major League Baseball. Its deep roots in working class immigrant communities guarantee a more reliable and lucrative fan base than the more fickle middle-class audiences that soccer has traditionally attracted in the US. As a result, the recruitment of high-profile Latin American players may be more consequential than the entry of over-the-top European stars like Beckham.

This essay analyses the arrival of Beckham and his spouse Victoria (Posh of ex-Spice Girls fame) in the context of the impact on the sport, and of celebrity culture in this country. It is the most recent expansion in the reach of Brand Beckham, wildly successful as a transnational, cross-media operation, and the couple's relationship and relatively autonomous role as icons is critical to the maintenance of the brand. In addition, however, the globalization of the sport, especially the migration of players from the Global South to the affluent European and North American clubs, is transforming the demographics and cultural resonance of the organized sport. The cosmopolitan make-up of the New York Cosmos in the 1970s—a high water mark in the U.S. acceptance of soccer—is now much more common in the top tier of professional soccer. The importing of players like Beckham, Juan Pablo Ángel (from Columbia) and Cuauhtémoc Blanco (from Mexico) are evidence of a new phase in the sports industry that is already quite advanced in the demographics of MLB, and increasingly in the NBA.