While suffering from World Cup withdrawal, I purchased and read this book (via the new Kindle App for the Droid) in about 1 day. Watching the World Cup this year really lit my footbal er, soccer flame. Seeing that I had so much time (i.e. unemployed) to watch the games, I really started to appreciate soccer.

I remember reading that David Beckham was coming to the MLS for an absurd (and false) 25o million dollars. I also vaguely remember reading that he was injured early and that was about it. What really happened is a fascinating story. Something that, today, is even more relevant considering what happened with LeBron James and the “Decision”. Also, with Thierry Henry getting ready to join the MLS for the NY/NJ Red Bulls (albeit for a much lower cost). Lastly, with Landon Donovan gaining unforeseen popularity coming out of the 2010 World Cup, it seems as if he pines to play in the Premier League.

The Beckham Experiment (heretofore TBE), gets my highest recommendation. Some of my favorite books are ones that follow a season (or seasons) of a sports team, gaining insight on what was not being said as the season was unfolding. The fact that I didn’t follow the Galaxy during the seasons covered in the book did not matter (and might I say, thank god for youtube as you can look up and find mostly all the highlights that are talked about in the book). I have read my fair share of these types for books, and I would rank this one right up there with my favorites (The Jordan Rules by Sam Smith, :07 Seconds or Less by Jack McCallum, Patriot Reign by Michael Holley, The Last Banner Season by Peter May to name a few).

“One in a Lifetime” was a book and documentary (I have not read the book) about the New York Cosmos of the NASL. A little backstory, the team was owned by media tycoon Steve Ross. To make a long story short, Ross spent absurd amounts of money to bring foreign superstars (slightly past their prime) to play for the Cosmos. The biggest of them was the immortal Pele. Needless to say, much like Beckham, no one could truly say how much money was spent to get Pele to play for the Cosmos, but you could not deny his impact. People came out in droves to see the famed Pele play, and his NASL career ended on a high note with a league championship. Of course, there was more than meets the eye. All of the bought superstars had massive egos, none bigger than Giorgio Chinaglia who took over the team behind the scenes. Chinaglia made a power play and got the coach fired, brought in “his guy”, and while there was success it eventually blew up. TBE is a more modern version of the same story, trying to bring the biggest star to America to bolster the worlds most popular game. There are many differences, but there are also many many similarities.

The main question of this book is, was bringing Beckham to the Galaxy a success? Of course, how you define success would define your answer. On a business level, it was a success. Tickets and jerseys sold at rates that the MLS could have never reached without Beckham. However, the Galaxy were a disaster on the pitch. The Galaxy did not just sign David Beckham, the signed on with Team Beckham and his management at 19 Entertainment. The relationship was further complicated by the LA Galaxy’s owner being in a business relationship with 19 Entertainment (heretofore 19) involving concerts and music venues. 19 had a vested interest in not only David Beckham but his lovely wife, Posh Spice. To 19, this was not just David signing with the MLS, this was the Beckhams coming to America. Perhaps if this had been Baseball, with a truly established league, the extra stuff wouldn’t have mattered as much. However, this was the MLS, small beans in the American sports culture. What ensued was a comedy/tragedy of errors that may or may not have helped the MLS in the long run.

Everyone really wanted this to work, but it was doomed from the start. The MLS system is one that encourages parity, there is a hard salary cap and the Galaxy couldn’t do as the Cosmos had done 20+ years before and surround their investment with world class teammates. The income disparity always seemed to be a major underlying issue, when you had Beckham making 6.5million and other guys making less than 2ok. To make matters worse, the Galaxy neutered their star player, Landon Donovan by making him give up his captaincy to Beckham. This was not a case like when the Red Sox traded for Schilling in ’04, sure Schilling challenged Pedro Martinez as the alpha dog. Still, he did shave Pedro’s jheri curl and make a wig out of it.

TBE goes on to document what really went down, with insight from most of the main characters. Author Grant Wahl clearly talked extensively with the Tim Leikeke (head of AEG therefore head of the Galaxy), GM Alexi Lalas, and Landon Donovan. The stuff from Beckham comes from a couple interviews and media sessions, but still gives you as much insight as possible from a guy with a very tightly guarder image. One in a Lifetime is a great book/movie, but it really suffers because Pele would not participate in any interviews for it. TBE gives you the feelings and thoughts from the players as the experiment unfolded. You can’t discount how important it is that this book gives you opinions from all sides of the story.

As I mentioned earlier, this book takes on so much more now. They aren’t the same, but you could draw some comparisons to what LeBron just did to the Cleveland Cavs. For years they placated to his every whim, then in the end he left them with nothing. Yet you can’t discount how much money he made them over his career. The Galaxy profited from Beckham, but they to placated him (and his “people”) to the detriment of the team and now his future with the team seems to be rocky at best.

Also now former Arsenal super star Thierry Henry is now coming to the MLS. While this received a mico-fraction of the attention that Beckham garnered, I think is going to work out very well. The MLS needs to feature more of these, just-past their primes big named stars. I don’t think Henry is here for anything but soccer, and he really should flourish in the MSL. Of the bat he may not get the press Beckham did, but if he scores boat loads of goals, people will pay attention. The lesson from TBE should be that its a good idea to bring these stars to America, just not at the expense of the team.

Lastly, in the news right now is the story that the MLS will not allow Donovan to transfer. Some people (i.e. Billy Simmons) think this is a travesty. I have a different take. Donovan makes a VERY good living in the MLS, and he signed his contract. One should honor a contract, plus he is going to be more popular here in the states, then he would be in Europe. Sure he doesn’t exactly owe the Galaxy, they were “unfaithful” to him, but at the same time he would be a fool to leave. For a guy who talked about the MLS, he should look in the mirror and realize that he has a great chance to take the MLS to the next level ( how about a 1.0 rating?).

Back to the original point, this is a really good book. I highly recommend it to anyone who is a fan of sports, or inside stories of sports teams. This book does not disappoint.