Here’s a tale for our times. Last week Ali Abbas, the 13-year-old Iraqi boy who lost his arms during an air raid on Baghdad, continued his recuperation in a hospital in Kuwait, wearing a T shirt emblazoned with a picture of his hero, an English soccer star who was about to start a promotional tour of Japan after having just been traded to a Spanish club in a deal–vital to the fortunes of a German shoe company–that merited an editorial in the New York Times and that was brokered by a sports agency owned by a company from San Antonio, Texas. Talk about globalization. David Beckham, the soccer player in question, is almost certainly the best-known sports star in the world. He doesn’t make the most money–in last week’s SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, soccer guru Grant Wahl reckoned Beckham, 28, earns close to $30 million a year, which is way less than the earnings of golfer Tiger Woods and Formula One racing driver Michael Schumacher–but Beckham’s agency, SFX, which is owned by Clear Channel, the radio and concert giant, hasn’t done badly by the boy. It is Beckham’s name that’s on the title of one of the sleeper movie hits of the year, Beckham’s face that sells everything from motor oil to cell phones to Japanese chocolates, and a likeness of Beckham’s body to which monks in a Thai temple bow in veneration. In Britain, Beckham and his wife Victoria, the former Posh Spice of the Spice Girls, have replaced Princess Diana as the staple of celebrity culture, adored by young and old, men and women, straight and gay. Last week ace trend spotter Marian Salzman of the advertising agency Euro RCSG Worldwide identified Beckham–who likes to say how comfortable he is with his feminine side and who has been known to wear a sarong–as the epitome of “metrosexuality,” which, since you ask, is the characteristic of heterosexual men who spend time and money on their appearance and enjoy shopping. He’s a pretty good soccer player too. But it isn’t just for his skills that Real Madrid paid Manchester United, the club for which Beckham played since he was 14, a sum of $41 million for his services. Europe’s leading soccer clubs are becoming true global brands. Measured by its value on the open market, United is the most successful sports franchise in the world; Rupert Murdoch tried and failed to buy the club for $1 billion in 1998. With a worldwide fan base–in August, it’s scheduled to play exhibition games before sold-out crowds in the U.S.–and enormous brand recognition in soccer-mad Asia, United has leveraged its stars to sell merchandise from Berlin to Bangkok. But in strict sporting terms, United is a lesser club than Real. Since the European club championship was inaugurated in 1956, United has won just twice. Real has lifted the trophy a record nine times. With Beckham on board, Real hopes to be able to market itself all over the world.
