"I'm not going to spend the next three years of my life doing it this way. This is f------ miserable. I don't want to have soccer be this way." Landon Donovan , center midfielder for the USA soccer team which recently lost to Brasil 3-2 in the USA's first FIFA final, talks about playing with David Beckham in an excerpt from Grant Wahl's forthcoming book 'The Beckham Experiment'.
posted by dig_duggler on Jul 1, 2009 - 84 comments

David Beckam signs with LA Galaxy; set to make over $1 million per week with the team.
posted by phaedon on Jan 11, 2007 - 125 comments

Too Much, Too Young Or Too Good To Be True? Fingers crossed! Cristiano Ronaldo is a charming and talented 18-year-old Portuguese football player, from a very poor family, who has just been bought by Manchester United for almost 20 million dollars/euros, a record amount. Given the No.7 shirt previously worn by the likes of George Best, Eric Cantona and David Beckham, his first game at Old Trafford has earned him rave reviews in the British press. Forgetting the football for a moment, how difficult is it for a teenager to deal with expectations this high and success this early in career and life?
posted by MiguelCardoso on Aug 17, 2003 - 24 comments

Brooklyn Welcomes Romeo Beckham! The stuffy old Daily Telegraph heartily approves of Romeo, the name Victoria and David Beckham have given to their new baby, a brother to Brooklyn. So now an extra throne must be added to the happy parents' atrocious, unmissable website. I would have let this foolishness pass, had I not noticed with alarm that there already exists a bottomless resource catering to those who insist on giving their offspring Shakespearean names. If this is a trend, how bad can it get?[Please, no suicide jokes.] Or, to put it in Shakespeare's own words, from Romeo and Juliet no less, is this a case of "What's in a name? That which we call a rose by another name would smell as sweet"[Act ii, sc.2] or, rather, of "the children of an idle brain begot of nothing but vain fantasy"?[Act i, sc.4]
posted by MiguelCardoso on Sep 2, 2002 - 72 comments

Forget about Palestine, Afghanistan and Venuzuela, Britts are praying for Beckham's foot and Uri Geller is set to help. Meanwhile, Argentines forget their economic woes, but the Financial Times fears this could kick start a second Falklands War. Is sport this important in your country?
posted by Geo on Apr 14, 2002 - 18 comments