David Beckham has signed a contract with the Los Angeles galaxy, a professional soccer club in the United States of America. It is the hope of Americans that the British star soccer player will generate more fan interest to soccer as a sport in the USA and to create a viable business venture out of the Major League Soccer, the country’s professional soccer organization. To this end, Beckham had to leave his old club in Spain and whatever other propositions which may have been offered him in Europe, although monetary issues would appear to be the least of his concerns. It is estimated that during the duration of his stay with the LA Galaxy, he would be earning 250,000,000 dollars at the most (from his contract with the club and from endorsements). That’s laksa laksa money.:-) But this isn’t about the money.
We pitiful, pitiful Pinoys have this weird trait of copying anything American. We just patterned our lives from them- from their music to their fashion to their politics, etc. But the one field where this stupidity becomes apparent is in sports, specifically basketball. Ask the neighborhood kids who their sports idols are and you’ll hear them recite the names of NBA All Stars- Bryant, Wade, Carter, etc.
Basketball as a sport in the Philippines has reached a level of development that presumably makes sportsmen from the other events, (except maybe for boxing, but this could still be subject to vigorous objection), envious. The pro cagers earn millions of pesos and kids couldn’t be faulted for aspiring to become professional basketball players themselves. It’s simply where the money is in Philippine sports. Even Pinoy sports fans aren’t as assiduous in patronizing the other sports events as they do basketball. The corporate sponsors, too, have poured most of their marketing funds to this dribble, shoot game. Forget about badminton, baseball, the martial arts, archery and the other games where players get categorized according to weight, thus leveling the playing field. Basketball it is, for Filipinos. At present, the national basketball team of the Philippines is on the hunt for a slot in the Beijing Olympics. Do we really believe that we can win a medal in a ‘serious’ international basketball competition? A competition where the real basketball powers are entered? BASKETBALL IS, OBVIOUSLY, A GAME WHERE HEIGHT IS MIGHT! Can there be a way to drill this simple truth inside the heads of our sports officials? Even if iron was included in the medals to be won, we couldn’t still hope of bagging that one. No. Not in a millennium… Oh, sure. David beat Goliath. Excuse me, but they were not playing basketball.
Enter Becks. I sincerely hope that he will be a smashing success in the US; that he will triumph where Pele had failed. May he stoke in American sports fans the excitement and the passion that other citizens of the world feel towards soccer. Then, maybe just then, if the Filipinos will be consistent in their let’s-do-what-the-americans-do character, we will witness the Filipino sportsman embracing the sport where he can truly excel. He will, at last be able to demonstrate his agility, his creativeness and whatever athletic skills he possesses, in a field where his natural size wouldn’t come as a handicap. And if the Filipino was truly ‘world class’, we will then find ourselves cheering for our players competing against the best. (Realistically, that still sounds like dreaming but it has a better chance of being achieved. Unlike in basketball where all dreams are bound to become a nightmare.)
(Honestly, I find soccer boring. My finger is immediately on the remote’s channel button if it’s the game being played on TV. But for it to be considered the world’s most popular sport, I have to believe that my apathetic attitude towards it, as a sports fan, should be my lack of exposure to it.)
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9 comments:
You know, when athletes sign huge contract like Beckham, my inclination is more on the negative side, especially team sports. One person cannot a carry a team to glory unless you're playing where your country's pride is at stake. There will be dissentions, resentments when soccer season opens. I'm just a pessimist, hehe.....
If I was in his team, I'll use game time as my exercise, just run around which soccer players do anyways. Like you said, that's lots and lots of dough for one player.
Cheers once again....
hi true blue,
yeah, it could appear to be unfair, this inequality in salaries, although we also have to admit that some players are more talented than others. and some don't have the capability and the guts to take charge. i guess this seeming inequality should serve as an inspiration for the lower-salaried ones to improve their game.
yup. cheers!
It's really weird that Filipinos only adopted basketball considering that other sports (baseball for instance) are just as popular as basketball in the U.S. Siguro we will have more of a fighting chance in international events if it was baseball that became popular here.
Siguro being bored with soccer is mostly because we are not raised to appreciate the dynamics of the game. Minsan nung piyesta sa Sagada, we were watching softball and my friend was so bored while I enjoyed watching it. I didn't realize na di pala niya alam yung mga bagay bagay tulad ng struck out, foul ball, and other stuff. Easier daw ang basketball to know kasi all you do is count who has a higher score.
Cheers din :-)
If there's any game, team sport that we can compete on in the world arena, it's baseball. Our physical statue, maybe a handicap but I really believe we can excel here.
The Little League World Series comes to mind. So who cares if those kids were one, or two years older, they're so skinny and underweight as compared to the US Team. Too bad Pinas didn't keep the title.
Cheers and goodhealth..
hi bill and true blue,
right. i fully agree with you both. baseball could be a game where we pinoys can compete against the very best. although we will always be at a disadvantage because of our size, such drawback can be offset in other aspects of the game, like training harder so the players will have a higher hitting average, for one.
yeah bill. all i can see is the continuous running, like true blue said in his other comment. we still couldn't identify with the love other people feel for soccer. and for a fan to shoot to death one of his country's national players for having mistakenly made a goal that got credited to their opponents (like what a columbian? did) is beyond me. such level of fanaticism is incomprehensible from where i stand.
cheers and good health, too.
Nakakatakot din mga fans ano katulad ng fan ni Stefi Graf who stabbed Monica Seles so that Stefi will become number one again. It's beyond crazy. But then the crazier thing is that he only served a very light sentence :-(
hi bill,
that stabbing incident was really a crazy act. it took quite a time for ms. seles, who was at the top of her game then, to recover from that event.
I agree...soccer is boring. I wonder if Beckham will live up to the hype. I heard he's nursing an injury at the moment. We'll see how he's going to do this year, and gosh, I simply don't understand why his wife wears those skinny, tight pants.
hello kayni,
yup. soccer bores. it would be interesting to follow the events in the mls with beckham's arrival. from news stories, he did seem to create quite an impact on american sports fans, with espn soccer viewers increasing. it remains to be seen if that initial success can be sustained... i hope it isn't just curiosity, or god forbid(!), just to have the chance to catch a glimpse of the spice girl in her skinny tights...he he he. joke.
cheers!
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