It seems David Beckham has signed a 5 year deal from August 2007 to play football for LA Galaxy in America after a glittering career in England and Spain as well as being captain of England’s national team.He is reportedly being paid 1 million dollars per week for five years.
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I say good luck to David. I am not sure anyone is worth that sort of money but David Beckham is more than a footballer – he is a Brand. He has become a smart business man with good advisers.
As I have said many times on my Blog I am a Manchester United fanatic and 'Becks' was one of the ‘boys’ to come through Manchester United’s youth policy under Sir Alex Ferguson in the early 1990’s along with the likes of Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs, Gary Neville, Phil Neville, Nicky Butt and many others.
David Beckham has always been a dedicated professional in his chosen profession and stories of his intensive football practice are legendary. He has worked hard to achieve what he has done in football.
The only thing that bugs me slightly is that while David is taking a wage of over 50 million dollars per year people are dying at the rate of 20,000 per day – mainly children – due to poverty.
Sometime I wonder about things but David Beckham does a lot of good work for charities and is at least putting back some of his personal wealth to help those less fortunate than him.
As always I will be fascinated to see comments.
10 comments:
He is a very fortunate man, in every sense of the word. I don't know what one can do with such amount of money, but I am sure his wife does know it.
I think he will take his career into another step in the show business, apart from being an excellent football player.
Hi Felix
Mrs Beckham will, I am sure, find ways to help David spend his money :-)
With all do respect to your loyalty to Manchester United, and Beckham's glory days as a footballer there, I think it's a bit of a stretch to extend his glittering career to Spain and the World Cup. Yes, he has transcended football into his own brand status and more power to him. --But he is no longer the footballer he once was. Seeing him heaving on the pitch during the World Cup and learning of his lackluster non-contributer status in Madrid . . . well, he is fortunate his business strategy is to retire to Hollywood to make millions like the other local denizens. Let's see if he can even do as well as some of his predecessor retirees, like Beckenbauer, Chinaglia, and Pele on the old NASL Cosmos. He will be hard put to keep up with the hardworking perservence of the new Latino population in the western MSL.
That is an incredible amount of money. I think it will bring a lot of interest for the sport to America. We are way behind many countries in this sport. My son is a soccer enthusiast and this may bring some needed attention to the game. Hopefully Mr. Beckham will put some of that money to good use through charities and such. The blog looks Trevor. Keep it up!!!!!!
"It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than a rich man through the gates of heaven." But, who defines "rich?"
And if Beckham barfs on the pitch in Los Angeles, the fans will turn on him in a hurry. That sort of thing is just not done in La La Land.
Interesting question about what obligation rich people like Beckham have towards the countless poor...
Of course, one might consider the source of his millions. He's not digging it up out of the ground - his fans are giving him that money, albeit indirectly (through ticket sales, advertising, etc). But don't doubt it - all his money comes from "the people."
So... I wonder: what if ordinary people have an obligation to give as much to the poor as we give to the rich?
In other words, if we say that rich people have an obligation to care for the poor, we risk letting ourselves off the hook ('cause *I* am surely not rich...not like Beckham). Far better to recognize that the people reading this blog are, geneally speaking, quite well off compared to the rest of the world, and might therefore have an obligation to serve the poor as well.
There's nothing wrong with giving Sir Beckham a few of our hard-earned dollars, but perhaps we could spare some for those less fortunate.
Of course, I'm speaking to myself as much as anything here - my own charitable giving could certainly increase...
Becks is a truly great footballer and, from what I have seen of him, a really decent guy - and I’m a Liverpool supporter! I have enormous admiration for him and think that it is a shame that we won’t see him back playing in the Premiership.
The debate about the charitable activities of the rich is interesting. I think that it was the newspaper tycoon, Roy Thomson, later to become Baron Thomson of Fleet, who, when asked to donate money to a charity, declined as it was too easy. Instead he offered his time, which to him was more valuable.
What a lot of comments to catch up on – that will teach me to go out on business for the day!
Dick – I agree he is not anywhere near the player he was at his peak but there are a lot of football fans here in England think he should still be in the England team. I have mixed feelings about that but if you look at the facts he was the only player who really made any impact for England in the World Cup 2006 – he scored one goal and made two others. I actually don’t think Becks has ever been as good since he left Old Trafford and had Sir Alex as his mentor. I think he could do well in America he is only 31 after all.
Rocky – thanks for the compliment about the Blog – it is good to get lots of comments. I am sure David Beckham will continue the work he already does for lots of charities. He has set up football schools for kids from poor areas in England and that is wonderful. As a matter of interest my own son Duncan attended a Bobby Charlton soccer school when Duncan was 10 years old – he is now 31. It was the same year that David Beckham attended the Bobby Charlton soccer school. My son had lots of ability but not the dedication that Becks had. I know your son is an excellent goalkeeper from our chats and I hope he makes it in a big way – maybe we will see your lad at Old Trafford one day!
Mike – Of course as you would know I like the Bible quote and I seriously don’t think David Beckham is doing this for the money as the prime motivation. He already has enough to last him the rest of his life if he never worked again. I also think ‘rich’ in the Bible sense can mean rich in what we do as much as what we own or how much money we have. Becks has rarely been anything other than a great role model for young kids on the pitch and I think as he has got older he has got even more professional – apart from the odd lapse. I am sure he will be a gentleman on the pitch in America.
Dan – there is also the story from the Bible of the women who gave all she had – a few coins, and Jesus said she had given ‘more’ than the rich people who had trumpets sounding in the street as they handed over their money to show the world they had given. I am a Board Director of a Voluntary organisation for Children with Special Needs and the staff spent a morning just before Christmas in a supermarket packing shoppers goods at the checkouts to raise money by shoppers making donations. They tell me the most money was given by those people who could obviously afford it least and those who were obviously affluent were less keen to part with their money. Doesn’t prove a thing but it is interesting don’t you think. I, like you, feel we could all give more to people less fortunate – I promise I will try harder in 2007!
David – Of course I agree with you about Becks and his football ability and for my American friends let me tell you how hard it is for a Liverpool supporter to praise a Manchester United player. There are many stories of David Beckham spending hours and hours practising his free kicks and as another of my heroes the golfer Gary Player once famously said – ‘The more I practice the luckier I get.’ There is no doubt David Beckham got his rewards in football through sheer hard work. What a great story about Baron Thompson – I like that. When I worked in the NHS we always wanted people to give time as volunteers as much as money and often the need for people’s time was more valuable than monetary donation. We all have gifts to bring to the table and by bringing ourselves through our time and our talents that is a great gift.
I find it astounding that Becks does not get a game at Real. It has now been reported that he never will play for Real again. Juyst because he is not as good as he was does not mean he is still not a supurb footballer. To take him out of the England squad has doen little good for England either. This is an unbelievable pay check especially when he probably wanted to go there anyway and the price was probably of secondary importance. The Americans got so excited that money became no object, although I bet sales of football (sorry soccer) shirts go through the roof in gthe USA. I can see TV deals and audiences like there never have been in the States, so who knows it could be the best investment they have ever made.
Mark
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Hi Mark
Thanks for your comments and of course you won’t find me disagreeing with you. I am a great Becks fan. I admire his skill, dedication and the fact he has the acumen to look after himself physically and from a business perspective. He obviously loves his family and just like all of us he wants to make sure they are looked after. All Becks has ever done is to capitalise on what he is good at. We in Britain are so good at knocking down people who do well. I wish him well in America and I have a feeling he could make a huge impression – it will be interesting if we have this discussion in 5 years time to see what impact he has made over there.
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