In China, millions of European football devotees know him as "Little Bei". In Japan and South Korea, he's a pop icon, revered like a rock star.
If David Beckham, soccer megastar and Manchester United midfielder, moves to Spain or Italy, the allegiance of millions of Asian fans -- and their spending habits -- are likely to move with him. Such is his extraordinary celebrity in the region.
In China, the Beckham sweepstakes headed the list of bulletin board topics on the popular Internet portal sina.com, and many fans criticised Manchester United for appearing willing to put their prize player on the auction block.
"I'll never watch Manchester United games again," one vowed.
Beckham, one of the biggest sports names in marketing with a brand worth an estimated 200 million pounds ($334.5 million), is the face of English soccer in Asia -- his looks sell motor oil in Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam, and his ever-changing hair helps market beauty products in Japan.
His fans are critical to negotiations to lure the 28-year-old England captain away from Manchester United to European clubs Barcelona and Real Madrid, his celebrity treasured nearly as much as his passes.
The two clubs lag their British rivals in developing business in Asia. Landing a player who can generate a Beatles-like reception in Japan -- the world's second-richest economy -- would be a quick-fix way of reversing that.
ENTRY TO ASIA
Beckham looks certain to leave Manchester United before next season and Barcelona are the front runners to sign him after the English champions conditionally accepted a 30 million pound ($48.9 million) bid this week.
But the deal is far from complete, and Real Madrid remain a contender and possibly Beckham's favourites.
For either club, Beckham is an entry to Asia, where Manchester United have an estimated 16 million supporters. Of those, a third support the player rather than the club, according to branding agency FutureBrand.
"Many fans in Asia watch a team because of the individual star players. When those players are transferred, quite often they will swap allegiances to a club and they will follow the player," said FutureBrand consultant Samantha McCollum.
"It's certainly very different to how things work in the UK, where you are committed to a club," she told Reuters.
It's easy to find evidence of Beckham fever.
In Thailand, a Buddhist temple near Bangkok has statuettes of him at the base of a Buddha image, and thousands mobbed him at Bangkok airport on a visit two years ago.
Hang, a saleswoman at Hanoi's Manchester United shop, says Beckham's image sells paraphernalia -- from key chains to jackets. "Kids don't think twice about paying $100 for a shirt."
For 25-year-old Indonesian lawyer Kusumawardhani the appeal is simple. "He's drop-dead gorgeous," she gushed.
But some in Malaysia and Singapore felt more loyalty to Manchester United. "Only the girls like him," snorted Laurence How, secretary of Manchester United's first official fan club in Southeast Asia.
"If Beckham wants to go, he can go."
In Japan, fans were divided.
Yasuhiro Kumada of Tokyo's Manchester United Fan Club says some members would quit if Beckham went. "We at the club put more emphasis on Manchester United as a team than David Beckham. But if Beckham moves to a different team, there are certainly a number of members who would quit."
(Additional reporting by Elaine Lies in Tokyo, Jonathan Ansfield in Beijing, Dominic Whiting in Bangkok, Achmed Sukarsono in Jakarta and Sadiq Jahabar in Kuala Lumpur)
© 2024 Rediff.com -