Paul Lewis: Goldenballs loses lustre

Kirk Douglas was a Hollywood movie star with a bit of a way about him.

One Fleet St journalist met the star on a movie tour only to find him brandishing a copy of an article the reporter had written, about which Douglas, father of Michael, waxed lyrical.

Douglas flattered the journalist further. All totally transparent but still good for the ego. Asked why he bothered with such stuff, Douglas dropped the act and said: "I'm here to sell the movie, so I have to make sure that journalists like me. And you are going to love me, you son-of-a-bitch."

They did and he rarely got bad press. People like famous figures to have a large dose of reality about them. It grounds them in their eyes; takes them closer to those who have helped make them famous.

David Beckham - you see now why the Hollywood tales - hasn't quite figured this out yet. He is back in Los Angeles these days, home of Hollywood, but has sadly lost his connection with his audience there.

Beckham arrived in LA to take up a US$6.5 million contract with the LA Galaxy football team two years ago. He was there, he said at the time, to spread the gospel of football.

He was there, his detractors said, to trouser the money and promote Brand Beckham.

This view was confirmed in the eyes of many when Beckham left Los Angeles, having been offered a loan place with Italian glamour club AC Milan - an opportunity irresistible to Beckham as it meant playing for a top-level club again and gave him the opportunity to force his way back into the England team.

While he was at AC Milan, Beckham tried to make his move permanent and slip his LA Galaxy contract but returned recently - to be greeted by hisses and boos from the Galaxy fan club. They felt, not unreasonably, that he regarded them and the club as a lesser entity and was only looking after himself.

His popularity reached a low when Beckham, being heckled by the fans, went to a fence and gestured at a fan to come down and join him. He said later he only wanted to shake the fan's hand but it looked testier than that on television and Beckham and the fan had to be separated when the worse-for-drink man became threatening.

It was all (designer) handbags and heaving pectorals (well, on Beckham's side anyway - the fan looked like he'd eaten a Fiat Bambina). Beckham was fined US$1000 but it was ugly and sad because it looked as though Old Goldenballs didn't realise that star quality has little to do with being a star.

It also spoke to the essential conundrum with which Beckham wrestles constantly - he is often viewed as more celebrity than sportsman and the clash with fans underlined that clash of cultures.

In a purely professional football context, Beckham did nothing wrong. He was with one club; he had a chance to become an international again by joining another. Any professional worth their salt would do the same.

But sport, even professional sport, has its roots in pride, loyalty and rivalry. Woe betide a sportsperson who forgets that.

Beckham might be a professional footballer and thus a citizen of the world but, to the LA Galaxy fans, he was one of their players - and he gave every appearance of not caring about that.

It didn't help that, on the field, Beckham didn't lift the Galaxy to any kind of triumph. Injury affected his first season and even that wondrous right boot didn't help the Galaxy to make the playoffs in the second. Reports suggest he has been ineffective. He's sold way more shirts than anyone else, though.

When he arrived at the Galaxy, Beckham's quote about spreading the gospel of football always sounded artificial. American football, sad to say, is still stuck with the perception that only women play it well, in spite of the fact that the US team massively upset Spain in the recent Confederations Cup.

Before that, the perception of Major League Soccer (in which the Galaxy play) was that it was the place where old footballers go to get fitted for their wheelchairs. We knew it, Beckham knew it and the fans knew it - but they didn't like Beckham making it obvious.

How much better, to use the Douglas dictum, to tell people he was there for the money but he wanted to do his best for the club and it was his job to make them love him and they were going to love him, those sons of bitches ... Better that than to pitch himself as some kind of footballing Messiah.

TV ratings remain poor and even though the US were feted for that win over Spain, no one can claim that was down to Beckham.

If he is to win hearts and minds in his US base - if that is what it becomes, as there have been suggestions Beckham will settle there and maybe even buy an MLS franchise - he is going to have to learn about the value of being real to real people.