David Beckham and friends hit the target in Champions League watchalong

It turned out to be a long, cold night for Arsenal, a late flurry not enough to save a Champions League campaign that had brought no shortage of thrills.

Over in CBS Sports’ studio in London, things were much more cozy, as David Beckham and his chums collected near what appeared to be a faux fireside to chat about soccer, acting and fashion, plus other important bits of famous person paraphernalia.

Wednesday marked the second night of Beckham & Friends Live, a watchalong show on Paramount Plus accompanying the Gunners’ 2-1 semifinal second-leg defeat to PSG (3-1 on aggregate), where the former England captain continued his latest – somewhat surprising – career turn.

Beckham remains as relevant as ever, his popularity given a fresh surge by his eponymous and well-received 2023 documentary, but he has never come across as a natural show host, meaning this undertaking could have been considered relatively risky.

However, follow Beckham for long enough and you work out that things usually break the right way for him, and so it was the case here.

Alt-casts, or whatever you want to call these things, live and die on the authenticity of the chatter and the willingness of the primary stars to be themselves, preferably as unfiltered as possible. Alongside actor, comedian and TV host James Corden and stage and screen actor Joseph Fiennes, Beckham hit that target, offering the kind of peek behind the curtain that is the whole point of the exercise.

Having spent his whole career in the limelight, the Inter Miami co-owner and former Manchester United, Real Madrid, LA Galaxy, Milan and PSG midfielder was often necessarily guarded with his comments during his playing days.

His willingness to break through the temptation to fall into that approach for this show was evidenced on Wednesday, especially just before halftime, when he turned back the clock on a fascinating slice of American soccer history that has often been shrouded in an element of mystery.

As the conversation turned to Declan Rice’s Arsenal captaincy credentials, Beckham pivoted to one of the most contentious parts to the early stages of his stint with the Galaxy in 2007.

“It is one of my regrets as a player,” Beckham said. “When I first moved to L.A., Landon Donovan was the captain. The owner of the team (Phil Anschutz) came to me and said, ‘I want you to be captain’. And I said, ‘No, Landon Donovan is the captain.’

“And then a week went by and they came to be again and said they spoke to Landon, Landon is completely fine with it, I then asked Landon and he said, ‘Yeah, of course, no problem.’ And they gave me the captain’s armband. It is my one regret. I should never have taken it off Landon.”

The relationship between Beckham and Donovan, deeply strained at first before the pair worked together and collaborated on two MLS Cup title-winning campaigns, was perhaps the main subplot in that extraordinary time, with Beckham’s arrival in the States still seen by many as one that allowed MLS to enjoy its subsequent explosive growth.

Relations between Beckham, Corden, Fiennes and CBS’ Kate Scott were far more cordial than his rocky dealings with Donovan in those initial months. One of the most interesting things about very well-known people is how they all seem to know one another, and Corden shared a story related to his friendship with Rice, dating back to the England’s midfielder’s time with West Ham, Corden’s favorite team.

When Rice was still undecided about where to move in the summer of 2023, Corden connected him via FaceTime with Beckham, who put in a hard sell on behalf of Manchester United – one that ultimately proved fruitless.

Beckham doesn’t have much of a soft spot for Arsenal. Growing up as a United fan in London’s East End ensured as much, and his time with Sir Alex Ferguson’s United coincided with a fierce rivalry between the Red Devils and Arsene Wenger’s Gunners.

But he loves Myles Lewis-Skelly, likening the teenager’s youthful spirit and fearlessness to a lofty comparator, Barcelona’s wunderkind Lamine Yamal, so outstanding in defeat for Barça against Inter Milan a day earlier.

Fiennes, of Shakespeare In Love fame, is clearly a huge soccer buff and enjoyed talking tactics and formations with Beckham, and also went into some detail about his role playing recent England coach Gareth Southgate in the stage production Dear England, which is being turned into a BBC screen adaptation.

Watching one of the most important games of the European season with the audio provided by an ongoing celebrity conversation rather than commentary analysis and observation takes some getting used to, even with the American audience now firmly accustomed to experiences such as ESPN’s Manningcast featuring NFL Super Bowl-winning sibling duo Peyton and Eli.

Yet there was undisputed appeal from this, particularly for a more casual audience without a direct affinity for either team. Beckham said his wife, Victoria, never watches soccer but had been glued to the previous night’s show, when actor Stanley Tucci and director Guy Ritchie had stopped by.

There was even a revelation from Beckham that he’d been urged by the Football Association to take his coaching badges as the end of his career neared, so that he could be potentially fast-tracked into the England manager’s job.

CBS punditry regulars Jamie Carragher and Thierry Henry dropped into the comfy chairs on either side of halftime, with ex-Arsenal forward Henry admonishing Beckham for turning up with a PSG jersey.

Scott kept things bubbling along and let the conversation breathe, and sometimes the football felt a little incidental. As Arsenal tried to mount a revival with a blistering Bukayo Saka shot that forced Gianluigi Donnarumma into an athletic save, the group was engrossed in the topic of Fiennes’ cousin, Ranulph, who climbed Mount Everest at age 65.

That’s what a watchalong is for, though, the unscripted format and the eavesdropping nature of it. The intention here was always more about light-hearted entertainment than an unrivaled level of insight and analysis.

Beckham at 50 is still a household figure because his likability keeps him interesting to a significant section of the public. His new show, so far, seems capable of achieving something similar.

(Top photo courtesy of CBS Sports)

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