The Beckham Experiment
   HOME
*





The Beckham Experiment
''The Beckham Experiment: How the World's Most Famous Athlete Tried to Conquer America'' is a non-fiction work by ''Sports Illustrated'' writer Grant Wahl. The book chronicles David Beckham's move to Major League Soccer and his impact on American soccer. Background Wahl, a veteran football writer for ''Sports Illustrated'', was asked to cover David Beckham's move from Real Madrid to Los Angeles Galaxy in 2007. He was granted one-on-one access to Beckham and his handlers. The original concept for the book was to follow Beckham and Galaxy, but due to his injuries the book was halted. Initially, Wahl approached Beckham's management about a potential book deal. However, Beckham's management gave Wahl the indication he would have to pay to write a book about the English midfielder. Wahl refused to pay for interviews and used his resources at Galaxy to obtain interview time with Beckham. Over a two-year period, Wahl interviewed Beckham after games as well as Ruud Gullit (Galaxy head coac ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Grant Wahl
Grant Wahl (December 2, 1973 – December 10, 2022) was an American sports journalist and soccer analyst for CBS Sports, a senior writer for ''Sports Illustrated'' and a correspondent for Fox Sports, based in New York City. He was also the author of the book '' The Beckham Experiment'' (2009). His ''Sports Illustrated'' career mainly focused on college basketball and soccer in the United States. Wahl ran for the FIFA presidency in 2011, but withdrew his campaign after failing to receive an endorsement from a football association. He left ''Sports Illustrated'' in 2020 and founded his own podcast and Substack newsletter. Wahl died from a ruptured aortic aneurysm on December 10, 2022, while in Lusail, Qatar as he was covering the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Early life and education Wahl was born on December 2, 1973, in Mission, Kansas; he had one older brother, Eric. He was a fan of the Kansas City Comets, a local indoor soccer team. Wahl graduated from Shawnee Mission East Hi ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


2006–07 La Liga
The 2006–07 La Liga season, the 76th since its establishment, started on 27 August 2006 and finished on 17 June 2007. Real Madrid won La Liga on the better head-to-head against Barcelona in one of its most thrilling seasons to date. Celta de Vigo, Real Sociedad and Gimnàstic de Tarragona were relegated. Barcelona was in first place for much of the season while arch-rivals Real Madrid were six points behind and in fourth. However, Barcelona began playing inconsistently after January, while Madrid's form improved in that same period. On 12 May 2007, Real Madrid took the league lead for the first time all season by defeating Espanyol 4–3, coming back from a 3–1 first-half deficit. The Sunday after Madrid won their epic battle with Espanyol, Barcelona dropped points with a 1–1 draw to struggling Real Betis. By virtue of their superior head-to-head record, Madrid sat at the top of La Liga with both teams having four league games lef On the penultimate day of the season, Bar ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

2008–09 Serie A
The 2008–09 Serie A (known as the Serie A TIM for sponsorship reasons) was the 107th season of top-tier Italian football, the 77th in a round-robin tournament. It began on 30 August 2008 and ended on 31 May 2009, with the announcement of the list of fixtures made on 25 July 2008. 20 teams competed in the league, 17 of which returned from the previous season, and three (Chievo, Bologna and Lecce) were promoted from 2007–08 Serie B. 20 clubs represented 13 different regions. The most represented region was Lombardy with three teams: Atalanta, A.C. Milan, and Inter Milan. Piedmont, Liguria, Tuscany, Lazio and Sicily featured two teams each while Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Veneto, Emilia-Romagna, Campania, Apulia, Calabria, and Sardinia were represented by one team each. There was a record number of southern teams in the top division with six teams: Cagliari, Catania, Lecce, Napoli, Palermo, and Reggina. The new match ball was the Nike T90 Omni. On 16 May 2009, Internazionale won ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

2009 MLS Season
The 2009 Major League Soccer season was the 14th season of Major League Soccer. The season began on March 19 and ended with MLS Cup 2009 on November 22 at Qwest Field in Seattle. Expansion team Seattle Sounders FC debuted as the league's 15th franchise and were the second in MLS history to qualify for the MLS Cup Playoffs. Real Salt Lake won their first MLS Cup by defeating the Los Angeles Galaxy in a penalty shootout. Changes from the 2008 season The following changes were made since the 2008 season: * Seattle Sounders FC began play as an expansion team in the Western Conference. * Two teams signed shirt sponsorship deals: ** Xbox 360 Live became the shirt sponsor of Seattle Sounders FC. ** Amway Global became the shirt sponsor of the San Jose Earthquakes. * The top two teams from each conference will qualify automatically for the playoffs (down from three). In addition, the next four highest point totals, regardless of conference, will also qualify (up from two). ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Serie A
The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa Campioni d'Italia. It has been operating as a round-robin tournament for over ninety years since the 1929–30 season. It had been organized by the Direttorio Divisioni Superiori until 1943 and the Lega Calcio until 2010, when the Lega Serie A was created for the 2010–11 season. Serie A is regarded as one of the best football leagues in the world and it is often depicted as the most tactical and defensively sound national league. Serie A was the world's strongest national league in 2020 according to IFFHS, and is ranked fourth among European leagues according to UEFA's league coefficient – behind the Bundesliga, La Liga and the Premier League, and ahead of Ligue 1 – which is based on the performance of Italian clubs in the Champ ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid digital media, digital subscribers. It also is a producer of popular podcasts such as ''The Daily (podcast), The Daily''. Founded in 1851 by Henry Jarvis Raymond and George Jones (publisher), George Jones, it was initially published by Raymond, Jones & Company. The ''Times'' has won List of Pulitzer Prizes awarded to The New York Times, 132 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any newspaper, and has long been regarded as a national "newspaper of record". For print it is ranked List of newspapers by circulation, 18th in the world by circulation and List of newspapers in the United States, 3rd in the U.S. The paper is owned by the New York Times Company, which is Public company, publicly traded. It has been governed by the Sulzberger family since 189 ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Designated Player Rule
The Designated Player Rule, nicknamed the Beckham Rule, allows Major League Soccer franchises to sign up to three players that would be considered outside their salary cap (either by offering the player higher wages or by paying a transfer fee for the player). The rule, which was adopted ahead of the 2007 MLS season, enables teams to compete for star players in the international football market. The rule is one of two mechanisms by which MLS teams may exceed their salary cap, the other being allocation money. As of December 2019, there have been 209 Designated Players in league history. The rule is informally named after David Beckham, in anticipation of MLS teams signing lucrative deals with internationally recognized players, after Beckham entered into negotiations to join the league. Beckham was the first player signed under this rule, signing a five-year contract with the Los Angeles Galaxy with a guaranteed annual salary of $6.5 million. History The team salary cap was est ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Sponsor (commercial)
Sponsoring something (or someone) is the act of supporting an event, activity, person, or organization financially or through the provision of products or services. The individual or group that provides the support, similar to a benefactor, is known as the sponsor. Definition Sponsorship is a cash and/or in-kind fee paid to a property (typically in sports, arts, entertainment or causes) in return for access to the exploitable commercial potential associated with that property. While the sponsoree (property being sponsored) may be nonprofit, unlike philanthropy, sponsorship is done with the expectation of a commercial return. While sponsorship can deliver increased awareness, brand building and propensity to purchase, it is different from advertising. Unlike advertising, sponsorship can not communicate specific product attributes. Nor can it stand alone, as sponsorship requires support elements. Theories A range of psychological and communications theories have been used to exp ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


19 Entertainment
19 Entertainment is a producer of entertainment properties for television with a focus on music. Founded by Simon Fuller in London in 1985, the company co-produced ''Pop Idol'' in the United Kingdom with Thames Television in 2001. The ''Idol series'' has since become one of the most successful entertainment formats, sold to more than seventy countries around the world, including ''American Idol'' in the United States. 19 Entertainment is also responsible for the production of ''So You Think You Can Dance''. Background and history Founded in London, England in 1985, 19 Entertainment was named after the Paul Hardcastle song which was one of Simon Fuller's first notable successes while working as an A&R man for Chrysalis Records. In 2001 the company co-produced ''Pop Idol'' in the United Kingdom with Thames Television. An immense success, Maggie Brown in ''The Guardian'' states, "the show became a seminal reality/entertainment format once on air that autumn". In 2009 the company anno ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  




Simon Fuller
Simon Fuller (born 17 May 1960) is a British entrepreneur, artist manager, and film and television producer renowned for nurturing and inspiring world class entertainment talent. He is the creator of the ''Idols'' TV format, including the UK series '' Pop Idol'' and the US series ''American Idol''. In 2020, Fuller signed an exclusive agreement with tech firm TikTok to create a new TikTok supergroup and concluded an agreement with Verizon Communications to develop 5G content. In 2021 Pearson PLC announced a partnership with Simon Fuller to create a new global education business in Performing Arts.In 2016, Simon Fuller persuaded Swedish quartet ABBA to re-unite to explore working in virtual reality, which led to the ABBA Voyage project. ''Time'' has named Fuller one of the 100 most influential people in the world. He has been certified as the most successful British music manager of all time by ''Billboard''. Fuller received the 2,441st star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on 23 ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Talent Manager
A talent manager (also known as an artist manager, band manager or music manager) is an individual who guides the professional career of artists in the entertainment industry. The responsibility of the talent manager is to oversee the day-to-day business affairs of an artist; advise and counsel talent concerning professional matters, long-term plans and personal decisions which may affect their career.MusicBizAdvice Q&A
January 2008
An artist manager is also a person responsible for hiring and managing the employees in a company. The roles and responsibilities of a talent manager vary slightly from industry to industry, as do the ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Alexi Lalas
Panayotis Alexander "Alexi" Lalas ( el, Αλέξης Λάλας; born June 1, 1970) is an American retired soccer player who played mostly as a defender. Lalas is best known for his participation with the United States men's national soccer team in the 1994 FIFA World Cup, where he was a standout player on the team with his distinctive long beard and hair. After the World Cup, Lalas went on to become the first American in Italy's Serie A as a member of Calcio Padova.Thiessay on U.S. soccer history, however, indicates that other two American-born players, Alfonso Negro and Armando Frigo, appeared for Serie A teams in the late 1930s, making Lalas the third American-born player in the Italian top league. Lalas would later return to the United States in 1996 to take part in the newly formed Major League Soccer, as a member of New England Revolution. Lalas also played with Club Sport Emelec of Ecuador, and the MLS squads MetroStars and Kansas City Wizards, but his most successful ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]