BADEN-BADEN, Germany - When it comes to sensationalizing soccer stars, the
English are perennial world champions. Whether walking the sun-splashed streets
of this ritzy resort in the Black Forest or training at their hilltop
headquarters in nearby Bueherltal, England's soccer players are in the center of
a media swarm.
Cheryl Tweedy,
girlfriend of England's Ashley Cole, left, and Victoria Beckham, wife of
England's captain David Beckham, center, with their son Brooklyn, right,
watch the England v Ecuador Round of 16 soccer match at the World Cup
Gottlieb-Daimler stadium in Stuttgart, Germany, Sunday, June 25,
2006.[AP] |
Becks stinks! Posh is slipping! Sven is clueless!
And the team itself is only part of the tabloid tizzy as England prepares for
its World Cup quarterfinal Saturday against Portugal.
A crew of photographers is assigned solely to the WAGS ¡ª wives and
girlfriends, as they've been dubbed ¡ª waiting on plush green lawns with long
lenses to chronicle balcony appearances and tag along on shopping trips through
the boutique-filled streets. Trends in eyewear and handbags have been
documented, and Victoria Beckham's tangerine top at Sunday's win over Ecuador
was given almost as much space in print back in The Olde Country as her
husband's winning goal.
Cheryl Tweedy, a Girls Aloud singer who is engaged to Ashley Cole, was voted
hottest WAG by readers of The Sun, beating out Beckham, the former Posh Spice
who also is known as Queen WAG.
"The scrutiny," defender Rio Ferdinand said, "is going to be immense."
Noel Coward wrote that "mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun,"
and Baden-Baden these days is proof. Ruddy faces fill the tree-lined
Lichtentaler Allee, which runs along the Oos River and cuts through the center
of a city famous for its underground hot springs.
Newsstands carry the British papers, which broke from their daily pummeling
following Sunday's 1-0 second-round victory to praise captain David Beckham. He
applied some English to the ball to score on a swerving 25-yard free kick, then
vomited on the field a few minutes later due to dehydration.
"Queasy does it" was the headline on The Sun and Daily Mail, while the Daily
Mirror blared: "Here we throw!"
But two days earlier, The Sun pleaded: "No Bexcuses."
The sensationalism isn't limited to Beckham. Coach Sven-Goran Eriksson,
imported from Sweden in 2000 to become the national team's first foreign coach,
decided in January to leave after the World Cup with two years remaining on his
contract. The move was announced eight days after the News of the World
published critical comments about players that he made to a reporter posing as
an Arab sheik.
"In one moment you're a bum, and the next moment you're a hero," said retired
tennis star John McEnroe, a former London tabloid target who remembered what his
friends used to tell him when he played Wimbledon. "They would say, `Hey, did
you see the paper today? They wrote that you've got four legs.'"
Beckham took time to rebut the German paper Bild, which called Posh a "luxury
wife" and described two of his sons as dwarves.
"I actually find it sad that someone drops to that level to criticize my
family," he said.
British papers are inescapable, piled high at the media center next to
England's practice field. There are air-conditioned white tents ¡ª with red trim
that emulates the Cross of St. George ¡ª and the feel is totally British. Tea and
biscuits are served inside, along with small sandwiches, snacks and coffee, and
the televisions carry English commentators.
