Book tells Beckham's LA story from star to unknown

NEW YORK: England soccer player David Beckham was a superstar in Europe but when he moved to America a waiter demanded to see his ID and refused him a glass of wine, according to a book due out in July.

"The Beckham Experiment," by Sports Illustrated writer Grant Wahl, features interviews with 33-year-old Beckham and other major figures in the Los Angeles Galaxy, the soccer team he joined in 2007 after a stellar career in Europe.

The move to Los Angeles with his pop star wife Victoria Beckham was the latest chapter in a life story that has mixed celebrity with athletic prowess. Beckham signed a five-year deal worth an estimated $250 million and arrived in a blaze of publicity promising to help raise soccer's profile in America.