Beckham's move to LA and what it means for HUFC

This from a fellow Home Team blogger. Good stuff, so we've decided to post it here too!

Singapore, or at least maybe we should start from HUFC :), should start nurturing stars that can be ultimately sold to the foreign (preferably top-class type) teams and leagues! This would generate income for the cash-strapped teams. Hey, this should even be a Key Performance Index - striving to nurture x nos. of talents that was signed by other leagues for a profit! Currently, only Fandi came close.

That's also one of the best way to up the profile and quality of the local football scene. But the bottomline is the S-League must dedicate resource and time to groom young football talents. HUFC is already doing so. The second step - to make the Lions a formidable force in the regional and international football scene so that people actually see them in action and want to sign them.

South Korea did it after many years and I would say they made it up there, with the likes of Park in Man United first team etc. (other Korean soccer starts also play in major European leagues).

Saturday, January 13, 2007Opportunity and laying a Long Tail to future paths I be no football fan, not being able to tell one side from the other, one rule from another.So don't worry, I be no Beckham fan, and won't be jostling with the rest for autograph or for the paraphernalia.But this article in TODAY is interesting - it tells a tale of how potential opportunities are seen, created, grasped, and how "long tails" are laid so that future opportunities (ie revenue sources) do not dry up. ("Long tails" referring to the book with the title that is something like Laying a Long Tail - not sure of exact title.)

Fittingly in La-la landBeckham's incredible journey takes a Hollywood twist
TODAY Weekend • January 13, 2007
Rahul PathakAssociate Editorrahul@mediacorp.com.sg

A MAN named Simon Fuller is gloating. "I have always dreamt of being responsible for sport's biggest deal," he says. "And now I have."

He has just finished selling David Beckham to America, promising them that the man with the squeaky voice and Spice Girl wife will do for "sah-kurr" what the Beatles did for pop music: Make it rock.

Fuller has just secured the pop icon who happens to be a footballer a five-year deal worth US$250 million ($386 million) to end his career at Los Angeles Galaxy.

In case you need help with the math, that is US$1 million a week — for a man who can no longer break into the England team or even his present club's first eleven.

And yet, Major League Soccer (MLS), which runs the game in the United States, believe they have got him on the cheap. Even if you discount typical American hype for a moment, MLS commissioner Don Garber has explained the deal in simple terms: "David is truly the only individual who can build the bridge between soccer in America and the rest of the world.

"His coming here can be viewed as one of the most important moments in the history of professional sport."

Die-hard soccer fans who swear by the skills of a Ronaldinho or the vision of a Zidane may well roll their eyes. And they would be wrong.

Don't you get it? David Beckham is a footballer who transcends football, a man who is famous simply for being famous. And none of this has very much to do with his ability to bend a ball. Even Roberto Carlos has been known to do that.

It's fitting, too, that the deal should have been brokered for a footballer by Fuller, a man who once put five girls on stage together — never mind that they couldn't sing — and created a sensation called the Spice Girls. Beckham's world has many intersections.

THE LEGEND OF David
It started as a football story in 1996. On the opening day of the season, he scored the goal that shook the world, lobbing Wimbledon goalkeeper Neil Sullivan from beyond the halfway line. The man was blessed with a right foot that could unlock Fort Knox.

The call-up to England was just a formality, but Beckham has always had the knack for punctuating glory with sickening lows. The story never stales — a marketer's dream.He scored with a blistering free-kick at the 1998 World Cup. But in the very next round, he was suckered by Argentina's Diego Simeone. Beckham lashed out at his opponent, got sent off and became Public Enemy No 1.Vilification turned to intense curiosity the following year when he married Victoria Adams, better known as Posh Spice. The world did not know it then, but Beckham the footballer, was about to become David the celebrity.

Victoria, with her PR skills and showbiz background, introduced him to the glitz and tattoos, ever-changing hairstyles and product endorsements.

He was loved for his magical moments on the pitch and innate good grace. After scoring the wonder goal against Greece that helped England qualify for the 2002 World Cup, he famously spent time with a severely disabled young girl called Kirsty Howard, saying he had never met anyone as courageous as her.

And he was hated for no reason other than his Page 3 lifestyle, with a fan once screaming that he hoped Beckham's son Brooklyn would die of cancer.It all added up to more media frenzy, more fans. The poster boy had taken wing and when Sven-Goran Eriksson took over as England manager in 2001, his first remarks were that he needed Beckham's autograph for his daughter.

The man was now an international object of desire for the gay community as well as screaming Japanese schoolgirls. Posh and Becks was a brand that moved the fashion world. British flick Bend It Like Beckham underlined his wider appeal and an installation depicted him sitting among the apostles.

Even Time magazine included Beckham in its list of top 100 icons for 2004. It gushed: "Beckham is an icon of modern masculinity at a time when gender roles are changing faster than runway styles. It ain't easy being the metrosexual pin-up boy, but Beckham doesn't flinch from the term.

"Alex Ferguson's boot was another matter. It flew to catch Beckham under the eye and closed the chapter on their professional love affair. Soon Beckham was bundled off to Real Madrid. They called him a galactico. His critics said he was a shirt-seller.

GLITZ AND DOLLARS
It would not have escaped his new bosses' notice that Beckham's name alone shifted more than a million replica shirts at Real, where he had a 50-50 share of merchandising at the club. LA Galaxy have allowed him a bigger cut, which could net him US$10 million a year.

He already has a foothold in LA. It was here that he chose to set up the first of his football academies in the US, a free-kick away from his new home ground.There are murmurings, of course. His critics point out that this is the end of David Beckham as a serious footballer.

"It's tantamount to semi-retirement, isn't it?" former star Gary Lineker told BBC. But he added: "Beckham's played for two of the biggest clubs in the world. It's a step down, wherever you go, so you might as well experience something different.

"The lifestyle seems tailor-made for the Beckhams.They are expected to buy a place near their friends Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes. And at the "TomKat" wedding in Italy last year, Victoria also made friends with Jennifer Lopez, who is introducing her to the Hollywood jet-set.Said Gordon Smart, deputy showbiz editor of British newspaper The Sun: "Image-obsessed LA will be a great place for Victoria to pursue her career in fashion design."There were rumours David would go to Celtic, but Sauchiehall Street doesn't quite compare to Sunset Boulevard.

"Playing for Newcastle or Celtic would have done nothing to burnish Beckham's aura. But making soccer popular in the US — something that Johann Cruyff, Franz Beckenbauer, George Best, Pele and even the 1994 World Cup could not achieve — now, that would be something.