Beckham & Donovan Struggle...

Given that all the soccer media is focused on the transfer window right now, I was a little surprised to see an article on David Beckham that will be featured on Sports Illustrated's next issue. Then again, it advertises a book written by a Sport Illustrated senior writer, so that might explain the timing. Or maybe is the fact that Beckham is close to coming back to the United States. Or maybe, it's because it's Sports Illustrated, a magazine that is completely out of sync with the world's greatest sport.

In any case, the article provides an excerpt from the book The Beckham Experiment, by Grant Wahl. The excerpt provides a little insight on the environment lived in the Galaxy locker room as the superstar came to conquer America. At first, I was a little curious about the article, since it was featured on CNN (I know, what do they care about soccer?). However, after reading a couple of lines, I found myself really interested in the subject. In a nutshell, Becks came to work for a not-so-great team playing in a not-so-great league in a country where soccer is as famous as my uncle. He had a hard time relating to his teammates, some of whom make 20K a year or less, and after a season and a half, decided to leave to Italy on a loan, where soccer is king.

My interest sprung up somewhere in between that story, specifically when Landon Donovan -- the star of the team before Beckham -- shared light on his relationship with the super famous star. I feel it for Donovan, he had to give up his captaincy and watch how his team was taken over by Beckham's people. The book tells how at first the U.S. leading scorer tried to have a good relationship with Beckham. However, it wasn't meant to be as Beckham's lack of enthusiasm and lack of drive turned Donovan off.

Now Donovan is not hiding his frustration at the British midfielder. "He's not [a good teammate]. He's not shown that. I can't think of another guy where I'd say he wasn't a good teammate, he didn't give everything through all this, he didn't still care. But with [Beckham] I'd say no, he wasn't committed."

With Beckham coming back on July 10, it will be interesting to see how long he will last or what role he'll be playing in a team that is now led by Donovan, who is committed to changing the way things operate at Galaxy. Aware that Becks has three years left on his contract, Donovan said, "Let's say he does stay here three more years. I'm not going to spend the next three years of my life doing it this way. This is f------ miserable. I don't want to have soccer be this way."