Making Soccer Sexy: The Beckhams Hit L.A.

David Beckham's $250 million dollar contract is meant to send a message to the American public: Soccer has finally hit the big time

By Christoph Biermann

David Beckham's move to the American professional soccer league is probably the most spectacular transfer of all time. The $250 million deal is about more than just a player switching leagues -- it's about bringing together football and showbiz and finally making soccer sexy in the US.

The day after he helped Real Madrid win the Spanish championship, David Beckham put in a call to Frank Yallop. It was the first extended conversation between the European soccer star and the Los Angeles Galaxy coach.

Yallop, 43, spent 14 years as a player with Ipswich Town, an English professional club known affectionately as the "Tractor Boys." He was the sort of diligent professional for whom football is more work than play. The contrast between his own past as a player and Beckham's persona -- complete with his various hairstyles and his constant appearances in the celebrity pages of the tabloids -- was clearly on Yallop's mind.

But as soon as the two men began discussing the daily workflow, Beckham's vacation training program and Yallop's plan to have him play more in the center of the pitch so that he can have more contact with the ball, it was obvious that they would get along. "There was no talk about Hollywood," says Yallop.

This Friday, Yallop will meet his new star in person for the first time. It's the day Beckham will debut as a new player in Los Angeles and, if everything goes to plan, it'll be the day American soccer is reinvented.

It was nine months ago that Galaxy's management asked Yallop whether a player like David Beckham could help the team on the field. Yallop smiled. Few teams on the planet wouldn't benefit from having someone like Beckham in their ranks. His response was apparently good enough for the club's executives, who promptly went to work and produced a five-year, $250 million contract. "It's an extremely innovative deal," says Simon Fuller, Beckham's manager.

$250 million over five years comes to about a million dollars a week. More than just a salary, these numbers sent a clear message to the American public: That soccer has finally hit the big time, and that this David Beckham makes more than some baseball or football stars. In fact, his annual salary as a player will amount to only $6.5 million, with the rest apparently coming from advertising and merchandizing contracts. His switch to Major League Soccer (MLS) is the most remarkable in football history, not so much because of the numbers involved but because it represents the first merger of football and the entertainment industry.

Still a Marginal Sport in the US

In Carson, the neighborhood where Galaxy has its headquarters, Los Angeles is about as glitzy as your average German industrial city. The Home Depot Center is a huge complex that includes a soccer stadium, a tennis stadium, an indoor cycling track and many well-manicured training fields. Yallop's team trains on field number six. Crosses here fly in from the left and right and go behind the goal. If they ever land in front of the goal, the strikers invariably kick them over the bar, missing the goal altogether. Yallop is a kindhearted man who always seems a bit worried. A look at his team explains why. Many of his players are poor kids, and that's exactly the way they play.

"David will be shocked when he finds out how little some of his fellow players make," says Cobi Jones, an American national team star who spent 11 years playing for Galaxy. Josh Tudela, the son of a Bolivian, grosses $2,500 a month as a professional in his first year. A midfield player, Tudela says he is looking foward to "Beckham showing us a few new tricks." Tudela isn't even the lowest-paid player on the team. Galaxy's third-choice goalie makes all of $1,100 a month. An MLS club's salary budget for a single season, about €2 million, is less than many regional clubs in Germany spend on their players.