Adam and Jennifer are newly engaged sweethearts, struggling to come to terms
with commitment and impending marriage. “Shouldn’t you have thought of all
this before you proposed?” she asks him flat out. “I wasn’t thinking before
I proposed, I just did it,” he protests. The audience laughs. When the
couple appear on a TV show called The Newlywed Game the host asks them to
name “the strangest, most unusual place they have ever made whoopee”. “I’d
have to say backstage before the show started, Bob,” says Adam, which
Jennifer confirms excitedly and the audience laughs again. For Bianca
Kajlich, who plays Jennifer in the popular American TV sitcom Rules Of
Engagement, it is a smooth day at the Sony Pictures Studios, which makes her
real-life husband happy. “I come to all the tapings and I find it
nerve-wrecking to watch,” admits Landon Donovan, the LA Galaxy captain.
“Everything happens so quickly and their lines have to be so sharp. If she
messes up, sometimes they have to start over from the beginning and I never
want to see that happen. So I’m nervous even though it’s always a lot of
fun.”
Slightly built and soft-spoken, America’s David Beckham is just another member
of the audience, living in virtual anonymity in tree-lined and trendy
Manhattan Beach with his actress wife and their three dogs. Since scoring
two goals for the USA on their unexpected march to the quarter-finals of the
2002 World Cup, he has been the pin-up boy of Major League Soccer (MLS), a
guest of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Late Show with David Letterman
and has won the MLS Cup twice with San Jose Earthquakes and once with
Galaxy. Kajlich has been named as one of Maxim magazine’s Hot 100 Women and
he has been hailed as the saviour of soccer in the United States, scoring 34
goals in 94 international appearances, but throughout it all the sport has
remained on the edge of America’s consciousness. Enter England’s Beckham.
“When the announcement was made [that Beckham was coming to Galaxy] we had
tabloid reporters showing up on our doorstep,” Kajlich relates with barely
concealed incredulity, for this is not a Hollywood-obsessed couple. They
have attended the Academy Awards together but only because it is part of
Kajlich’s business. At home with their three dogs is their domain, not the
Hollywood parties. “The people who go seeking those things, Paris Hilton and
people like her, they deserve that stuff to happen but our privacy is really
important to us,” Donovan asserts. “So when the reporters showed up it was
eye-opening and a little bothersome, but this is the reality. David Beckham
coming here has made it the reality.
“I can empathise a little bit but not on his level because the attention must
be constant. He’s a pro, he’s been doing this for a long time and knows, I’m
sure, what he’s about to get into here. I don’t know how he does it with all
the photo-shoots and sponsor commitments but he seems to be able to put it
all aside and come out to training and work hard, which is all you can ask
for. I’m amazed he can do it because I get worn out doing appearances and
all that stuff. Even with eight hours’ sleep it leaves me exhausted. It’s
just not my thing. Manhattan Beach is a family oriented beach town. There
are a lot of families and children in the neighbourhood. The Lakers
[basketball team] train there, as well as the Kings [ice hockey team] and
the Clippers [another LA-based basketball franchise], so there’s a bunch of
athletes in the area and also some very wealthy people, much wealthier than
us, so nobody cares who you are. Once in a while someone will come up and
say, ‘Hey, you’re a soccer guy,’ but it’s never like, ‘Oh my God, look who
it is,’ so it’s nice. It makes it easy just to walk about town and not have
to worry about stuff, which is what we like, peace and quiet.”
These commodities will be in short supply once Beckham breezes into the Home
Depot Center on July 12 ahead of his official unveiling 24 hours later.
Donovan is unsure to what extent Beckham will make a lasting impact on the
game in a country where promising 14-year-old footballers still grow into
basketball, baseball or gridiron players, but he is certain the
32-year-old’s work ethic will be tested. “A lot of foreign players think
it’s going to be easier because MLS may not be on the same level as other
leagues they’ve played in. So they think their skill level is going to be
enough because they’re a little more talented,” he explains. “The fact is
it’s harder here because guys are athletic. Maybe they’re not as talented or
as technically gifted but they work their ass off and get around the ball
and make it hard on you, especially if you’re an attacking player. As long
as Beckham knows this and works hard - and by all accounts he always has
done - his skill will shine.
“Some people think we’ll never lose when he arrives and he’ll score a
hat-trick every game but we’re not naïve. We understand that we will have a
lot to do with it. In fact, most of it will be down to us. I have this
mentality right now that we should win, so why aren’t we winning? [Galaxy,
who will play Chicago Fire on July 4, have lost five, drawn three and won
only two games in MLS this season and in the Western Standings lie 16 points
behind Dallas, who have played five more games] Sometimes you get into a
funk where you just get used to losing and you have to turn that around and
say it’s not acceptable. I’ve been trying to impress this on my teammates
and I hope that Beckham comes here, does the same and succeeds. I know that
Europe is still the goal but eventually, if guys are making money and the
league’s more competitive, who wouldn’t want to live in America and play
here? Maybe it will never happen but, if we can get the competitive level up
as well as the money, we can maybe get younger and better guys coming
through and playing the game.”
Beckham’s salary for his contribution to the remainder of the 2007 campaign
will be $5.5m. Ty Harden, a 23-year-old central defender, will make only
$17,700 this season under the salary-cap system and Donovan, Galaxy’s
best-paid player besides Beckham, will collect $900,000. The 25-year-old
forward, who spent three years at the beginning of his career with Bayer
Leverkusen in the Bundesliga, would like to see greater parity in players’
wages and a more incentive-oriented setup. “I care that every game is
competitive and the best way to do this is financially, which doesn’t mean
paying people more money,” he insists. “It means paying people the right
way, providing them with incentive to succeed. If you’re in the A team, you
should get so much money and, if you don’t make the A team, you don’t. Then
a guy who’s making $20,000 a year is going to bust his ass to get that extra
money. The same with games. Win bonuses should be huge, even if that meant
everybody taking a salary cut. With the incentives you could end up making
more money, if you won more games. That’s how it was in Germany, where every
game was a battle because the win bonuses were huge and even to step on the
field was worth a lot of money. Here I think there are too many guys - and I
throw myself into this - who make a fat salary. I would rather make a little
bit less guaranteed and have a chance to make more if I perform well.”
Donovan can recall wearing a pair of $10 boots “for probably five years” while
he grew up playing football in Redlands, California, some 70 miles from the
Home Depot Center. His parents divorced when he and his twin sister,
Tristan, were young and times were tough living with their mother, Donna,
who has dedicated her life to working with children with special needs. “We
weren’t poor but we went through tough times. But my mum did a really good
job and it makes me appreciate what I have now all the more.” Out of the
spotlight, Donovan feels he has it all.
All-American hero
Landon Donovan and his actress wife Bianca Kajlich (Dawson’s Creek) are
America’s answer to Posh and Becks. They married on New Year’s Eve 2006 and
live in Manhattan Beach, California, with their three dogs
Donovan began playing football as a child, learning from his half-brother,
Joshua. Aged five, he begged his mother to let him join a local league and
scored seven goals in his first game. ‘He wore soccer clothes to school every
day,’ his twin sister, Tristan, recalls
A bright student at Redlands East Valley High School, he also showed a talent
for music and played the violin. He joined US Soccer’s Under17 training
programme and in February 1999, a month before his 17th birthday, signed
with Beyer Leverkusen
Took part in 2000 Olympics and scored on his US debut in October 2000 against
Mexico. Scored in last week’s 2-1 Concacaf Gold Cup fi nal win over Mexico to
go level with Eric Wynalda as leading US goalscorer on 34. Now 25, he has 94
caps
Unhappy about a lack of first-team opportunities at Leverkusen, he was loaned
to San Jose Earthquakes, with whom he won MLS Cup in 2001 and 2003. Scored
twice in US run to quarterfi nals of 2002 World Cup
Recalled to Leverkusen in November 2004, but, with no regular starting place,
joined LA Galaxy. Helped them to victory in the MLS Cup in 2005
