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Book Review: Grant Wahl's “The Beckham Experiment”
Goal.com's Zac Lee Rigg reviews "The Beckham Experiment" by Sports Illustrated's Grant Wahl.
Jul 15, 2009 9:06:33 PM
By Zac Lee Rigg
Grant Wahl repeats a phrase several times in his book, The Beckham Experiment, that could also apply to the book itself: “Only in MLS.” It's only in Major League Soccer that Wahl would get such unprecedented access to the major players in such a huge sporting and marketing enterprise as bringing David Beckham to America. And only in MLS, with its college-educated and frank players, would Wahl have been able to continually mine his sources, a year and a half after beginning, for quotable, illuminating details.
Wahl walks the reader through the thought processes of the players, staff, and executives who brought Beckham to MLS with the Los Angeles Galaxy and their candid reactions as the first year and a half unfolded. Readers are given exclusive access to all the big names: the emotional, boisterous Alexi Lalas; the wry, perceptive Landon Donovan; the affable, jovial Alan Gordon; the earnest, forgiving Chris Klein; and the fickle Tim Leiweke.
The one man who seemingly escapes Wahl's detailed characterizations and keen exegesis is the man whose face and name is plastered on the cover. David Beckham remains, throughout, an enigma. He looms over the book like an uncommunicative parent, never revealing his true thoughts or intentions. Instead, Wahl pops up in the minds of the figures around Beckham, sometimes making the jumps jarringly, to piece together the events that took place within the Galaxy from 2007 through 2009.
The book starts slowly. Wahl has a grating tendency to repeat himself, both in descriptions and details, as if he wants to make sure each individual passage could be quoted without losing its background. However, there's a palpable shift as the action moves from behind the scenes out onto the pitch, once Beckham finally gained fitness in late 2007. Wahl's prose takes a noticeable jump, in particular upon detailing Beckham's first free kick goal. It's a searing passage that reminds you Wahl is, after all, a sports writer, and an exceptional one at that.
As the story progresses, it becomes increasingly more compelling. The locker room meltdown between Ruud Guillit and Lalas in 2008 especially makes for page-turning drama, with Wahl seemingly knowing every detail of the labyrinthine maze of deception, grudges, and egos woven underneath the Home Depot Center. Similarly, Wahl weaves his story from a collage of tales and viewpoints to try to circle around the truth.
The Beckham Experiment is an exceptional piece of sports journalism—thorough, hard-hitting, fascinating, and in-depth—with one of the most audacious sporting acquisitions at its center. Throughout, Wahl maintains a non-partisan cool, relaying events with enthusiasm but without bias, even providing a rudimentary introduction to soccer in the United States in the process. Though it perhaps could have shed a portion of its 300 pages without giving up much, the book is essential reading for fans of MLS and U.S. soccer.
Zac Lee Rigg is an associate editor of Goal.com Grant Wahl's "The Beckham Experiment" can be purchased here.
For more on Major League Soccer, visit Goal.com's MLS page
Grant Wahl repeats a phrase several times in his book, The Beckham Experiment, that could also apply to the book itself: “Only in MLS.” It's only in Major League Soccer that Wahl would get such unprecedented access to the major players in such a huge sporting and marketing enterprise as bringing David Beckham to America. And only in MLS, with its college-educated and frank players, would Wahl have been able to continually mine his sources, a year and a half after beginning, for quotable, illuminating details.
Wahl walks the reader through the thought processes of the players, staff, and executives who brought Beckham to MLS with the Los Angeles Galaxy and their candid reactions as the first year and a half unfolded. Readers are given exclusive access to all the big names: the emotional, boisterous Alexi Lalas; the wry, perceptive Landon Donovan; the affable, jovial Alan Gordon; the earnest, forgiving Chris Klein; and the fickle Tim Leiweke.
The one man who seemingly escapes Wahl's detailed characterizations and keen exegesis is the man whose face and name is plastered on the cover. David Beckham remains, throughout, an enigma. He looms over the book like an uncommunicative parent, never revealing his true thoughts or intentions. Instead, Wahl pops up in the minds of the figures around Beckham, sometimes making the jumps jarringly, to piece together the events that took place within the Galaxy from 2007 through 2009.
The book starts slowly. Wahl has a grating tendency to repeat himself, both in descriptions and details, as if he wants to make sure each individual passage could be quoted without losing its background. However, there's a palpable shift as the action moves from behind the scenes out onto the pitch, once Beckham finally gained fitness in late 2007. Wahl's prose takes a noticeable jump, in particular upon detailing Beckham's first free kick goal. It's a searing passage that reminds you Wahl is, after all, a sports writer, and an exceptional one at that.
As the story progresses, it becomes increasingly more compelling. The locker room meltdown between Ruud Guillit and Lalas in 2008 especially makes for page-turning drama, with Wahl seemingly knowing every detail of the labyrinthine maze of deception, grudges, and egos woven underneath the Home Depot Center. Similarly, Wahl weaves his story from a collage of tales and viewpoints to try to circle around the truth.
The Beckham Experiment is an exceptional piece of sports journalism—thorough, hard-hitting, fascinating, and in-depth—with one of the most audacious sporting acquisitions at its center. Throughout, Wahl maintains a non-partisan cool, relaying events with enthusiasm but without bias, even providing a rudimentary introduction to soccer in the United States in the process. Though it perhaps could have shed a portion of its 300 pages without giving up much, the book is essential reading for fans of MLS and U.S. soccer.
Zac Lee Rigg is an associate editor of Goal.com Grant Wahl's "The Beckham Experiment" can be purchased here.
For more on Major League Soccer, visit Goal.com's MLS page
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