Something from Left Field: A Review of Grant Wahl’s The Beckham Experiment

This has nothing to do with Italian football at all. But it does have a lot to do with football, and it offers a bit of a change of pace which is always nice.

My friend Mike let me borrow The Beckham Experiment, and right away I was hooked. I can’t stand David Beckham at all, but I did want to read about probably the most sensational transfer of our time. The book ended up being a pretty easy read- around 2-3 days of reading time max. I’m not going to recount what happens in the book for two reasons: one, most of us live in America and know the details (and those who don’t probably know them anyway) and two, that’s what the book is for. But it’s engaging enough where you can read stuff you’ve known about and still be interested in it. Wahl goes pretty deep into the politics of soccer, which helps the book have an appeal to those who don’t even like Beckham. The inner workings of the Galaxy are exposed, and it helped me learn a lot about how MLS clubs are run- and how they shouldn’t be.

Overall its a very good read. Wahl sometimes repeats himself, which can be a little frustrating- you get the feeling that he’s making sure that even the most soccer-ignorant person can follow the book, which means he often reiterates soccer details quite a bit. And that’s probably fine for people who don’t know about the game, but for footy fans, especially ones that have been following the Beckham saga from the beginning, it can be tedious.

More than anything, the book gave me a new respect for Donovan. He really is the true leader of the team, the one guy who truly expected Beckham to take over the mantle and the one who called him out when he didn’t.

So it has nothing to do with Calcio, the Azzurri, or Italy at all (besides his loan spell with Milan), but if you’re ever bored on a rainy day, Grant Wahl’s The Beckham Experiment is definitely worth a look for all footy fans.