How David Beckham Changed America’s Perception Of soccer

The coming of David Beckham at the Los Angeles Galaxy team a couple of years previously may not have provided much success in favor of the club itself, however it has undoubtedly raised the profile of the “beautiful game” in the United States.

Beckham and Victoria brought together the VIP celebrity society and the superior echelons of the soccer world in a mode that had by no means been seen beforehand in The United States. Before his appearance (in truth even at the present), the leading American soccer players might only daydream of making a small percentage of the sky-high numbers bandied about when Beckham’s overall salary are mentioned
But still, he seems to have had the desired influence of raising the sport at grassroots level, as well as in the star world. This was emphasised by the gigantic crowds on show when Chelsea, AC Milan and Inter Milan appeared in the States for a pre-season tournament. Every game was played in front of a sell-out crowd. I seem to recall over 100,000 being at one match concerning Chelsea, dwarfing the figures seen at pre-season games even in England.

The upsurge in the fame of “soccer” has also seen a rise in the blogs and fan-sites appearing in the States, and a few have caught my eye of late as they seem to have a entirely unlike manner of looking at football than the English population. Perhaps we should modify it to “soccer” also, it might change our attitudes!

I especially love the weirdly named Amongthethugs (a testimonial to a tome by American author Bill Bruford about British hooligans from the nineties i suppose, even if it is not spoken of on the site). This is a site set up by six West Coast football supporters, who between them support five diverse English clubs, plus they retain a pleasingly comical stance on the footballing landscape in Britain. No-one is protected from their jibes and i observe myself habitually checking back to establish who their jokes are aimed at next.

They have only just asked why Carlo Ancelotti would deliberately throw a contest against Wigan which i found quite amusing, and they projected a new eye protection for Van Persie to show off when he subsequently faces Adebayor.
A further one that tickled me is the resemblance of Carlos Tevez to a Caveman! You have to see them to get the jokes, so go over and have a peep. You will not be dissatisfied. The good-natured ribbing of the clubs supported by the other bloggers is something you definitely don’t get in angry old England! If you are into soccer and like a bit of fun, test it out, you won’t be disappointed with AmongTheThugs.

So you can see that the “David Beckham effect” has had a much further reaching impact on the American football scene than any person had expected. Though he may have been making obscenely astronomical salary, he has had the desired outcome of tempting more and more “soccer” fans to matches than has ever been seen previously.

And the American view of “soccer” is perhaps something that I would like to see exported to Britain, as the fans here just seem to take everything much too seriously!