Why David Beckham Gets My Vote for US Soccer Hall of Fame | Pablo Iglesias Maurer

NNext spring, when the US Soccer Hall of Fame welcomes its new class, it will be with pomp and circumstance. The hall, located in a corner of Toyota Stadium, home of Major League Soccer FC Dallas, will feature the Saints’ signature red jackets. Players and coaches will listen to congratulations and speeches, bleary-eyed reflections on their upbringings and careers.

Many of the participants will, of course, be American-born soccer legends. However, every now and then a player appears on the scene whose presence extends far beyond the United States. That could happen next year, when the hall potentially welcomes English legend David Beckham into its ranks.

Some readers abroad – and certainly many readers here in the States – will wonder why the supposed American Non-Americans will be admitted into the Hall of Fame and have done so since its inception. The answer lies in the nature of the American game itself. Even our earliest heroes—Joe Gaetjens and his ilk—were immigrants. Gaetjens scored his famous goal against England in the 1950 World Cup, when he wasn’t even a US citizen (he never became one).

Decades have passed and famous American-born heroes are really starting to emerge, but they are still outpaced by foreign heroes. The history of the North American Soccer League is replete with foreign-born Hall of Famers such as Pele, Franz Beckenbauer and Carlos Alberto. Even the major Covered The Football League finally got its due: just last year, Steve Zangoole, the “master of all the inner peace”, was inaugurated. “Tatu”, another foreign-born arena legend, looks set to take part this year.

All this means is that there is precedent for this. If you have made a significant contribution to soccer in the United States, you are eligible—period. That’s how it should be.

By this standard, Beckham’s authority is beyond doubt. Perhaps the most direct parallel to his contribution is the career of Pele, who arrived in the United States in 1977 and changed the gaming landscape in this country. Like Beckham’s tenure with the Los Angeles Galaxy, the Brazilian’s playing career has been successful. He won the league championship in 1977 and was extremely productive throughout his time in the United States. He gave every interview, signed more or less every autograph, and then founded a soccer camp in New Jersey that raised thousands of soccer-mad kids, many of whom went on to play for the U.S. men’s national team. He remained here for decades after his retirement.

However, after all this, professional soccer in the US more or less collapsed within seven years of his departure.

Beckham’s playing career at the Galaxy (2007–2012) was in some ways more successful than Pele’s. Much has been said about his tumultuous arrival in the US, so masterfully recounted by the late, great Grant Wahl in his book The Beckham Experiment.. However, after the smoke cleared, Beckham became a mainstay of the Galaxy, working alongside Landon Donovan (himself a Hall of Famer) to lead the club to a pair of league titles and two Supporters’ Shields.

However, its real impact came at the league level. Major League Soccer created an entirely new squad mechanism – the designated player rule – to accommodate Beckham’s arrival, a rule that fundamentally changed its reality. Like Pele, dozens of uninitiated fans filled MLS stadiums to see Beckham. And just like the Brazilian did, Beckham stayed long after his playing days ended, eventually founding Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami, the league’s current standard-bearer.

The Hall of Fame inducts candidates in three categories: player, veteran and builder, the latter of which is reserved for those whose work primarily took place off the field. Beckham’s inclusion this year is in the veteran category, where he is nominated along with nine other worthy candidates. The presence of his name has been the subject of much debate among voters, including myself.

Arguments against his inclusion are based on the fact that in a few years Beckham’s name is likely to appear on a list of building candidates. Of course, helping to create Inter Miami and recruiting the greatest player in history to play there deserves to be considered by those standards. So if he has a good chance of being successful this way, why not save that spot for someone else?

However, for me, voting for him now is an easy decision – why wait? Beckham’s playing career itself compares favorably with many members of the audience. And while he is undoubtedly a “builder,” much of that work has taken place alongside his playing career.

His mere presence on the field legitimized the fledgling league and led to a decade-long boom that nearly doubled its size. It’s not just Beckham’s business, of course – far from it – but I could easily make the argument that Beckham’s influence on American football is as great as Pele’s – and Pele certainly has a place in the room.

So, English-born Beckham will get one of my votes for induction. In fact, three of my five candidates for induction (Beckham, Tattoo, Ken Cooper Sr., Tiffany Roberts and Clint Mathis) were born overseas. It seems truly American to me.