Grant Wahl joined Sports Illustrated in November 1996 as a reporter and was promoted to his current position of senior writer in October 2000. Wahl’s writing for SI and SI.com includes college basketball, soccer, investigative reporting and features on a variety of topics. He began his career as an intern with the Miami Herald in 1996.

However to many US Soccer fans, he will always be remembered for the blockbuster book, “The Beckham Experiment,” which became the first soccer book to reach the New York Times bestseller list. With unique access to all the key figures, “The Beckham Experiment” gave Landon Donovan to voice publicly his reservations about Beckham’s influence at the club. He used it to the full.

PROST AMERIKA: Your book created quite a stir, especially when David Beckham was first returning from AC Milan.

GRANT WAHL: Yeah, it did. The timing of it was interesting because the book came out on July 14^th and David Beckham’s first game back with the Galaxy was two days later. There was quite a bit of discussion, especially around the comments made by his high-profile teammate Landon Donovan, the top US player, questioning Beckham’s commitment and leadership, and these are things that Beckham has rarely ever had a teammate say about him.

PROST AMERIKA: That brings me to the first thing that interested me. When Landon Donovan and you were speaking, and Landon first started slamming him, was that a pivotal moment when you realized you had an even bigger, better, more blockbuster of a book than you’d ever thought?

GRANT WAHL: To some extent, but you have to keep in mind I’ve been recording this book for almost two years and had been speaking with Donovan just about every week or two during that process one on one, and this was kind of a progression that once you read the book it seems a little more natural that Donovan totally became disillusioned with the Beckham experiment, at least over the first two seasons. And he said some critical things to me before that–in the weeks before–but in the final week of the 2008 season things really came to a head when the news came out that Beckham had been arranging his loan to AC Milan. I think at that point Donovan was frankly furious. Donovan had led the league in goals and had a very good individual season and was the best player on the team, and I think he felt that Beckham had somewhat abandoned the team by that point.

PROST AMERIKA: So you think that was the straw the broke the camel’s back?

GRANT WAHL: I think so. I mean, the interview in which Donovan really unloaded on Beckham came the day after the news of Beckham’s loan to Milan came out and it was the last week of the regular season, the Galaxy had already been eliminated the previous week from the playoff, and I think Donovan was frankly miserable by that point with the way things had gone in the season and had been very frustrated by the impact or lack thereof that Beckham had had. His own handlers had essentially taken over the team for a time. Beckham’s personal manager and best friend became a paid consultant to the Galaxy and even conducted the coaching search for Ruud Gullit in late 2007. It was a truly bizarre situation, unlike anything I’d ever seen in sports before.

PROST AMERIKA: Were you surprised that when Landon Donovan’s comments came out there was a lot of focus on should he have said it, it’s amazing that he said it. What I didn’t hear was anyone denying the Beckham was a bit of a piece of work.

GRANT WAHL: Well Donovan himself has only apologized for the way he delivered it through me instead of to Beckham face to face. Donovan really hasn’t stepped back at all from the content of what he was saying, and I think it was important to him to get this out there and for Beckham to know himself how Donovan felt. To be honest I don’t even think Donovan would have apologized for the way he did it had Beckham not been coming back into the team at that very moment and the team, to keep from being dysfunctional, needed Donovan to say that so they could function on the field.

PROST AMERIKA: And that’s an interesting point, with a similar incident here in Seattle where Kasey Keller used the media to make a point to his teammates. Do you think that to some extent Landon Donovan knew exactly what he was doing when he unloaded to you and exactly what the reaction would be and the effect?

GRANT WAHL: I think entirely he knew what he was doing. I think this was not something where Donovan was very angry or flying off the handle. It was a very measured delivery of how he felt, and I think he got frustrated that he had approached Beckham in the locker room and Beckham had not wanted to talk about things that might be deemed critical that were perhaps for the good of the team. At one point Donovan even sent him an important message by text message, which shows how their relationship had started deteriorating in 2008. And so I think at one point Donovan finally decided the only way to really reach Beckham was to go public, that that’s the only way to really grab his attention in a way that he couldn’t behind closed doors, and really wasn’t able to.

PROST AMERIKA: So you were really at the right place at the right time in terms of having a player in the story.

GRANT WAHL: In terms of being a journalist and finding out what was really going on behind the scenes. I feel good that this book takes you about as far inside a team as you can go and it’s really hard to achieve that in sports nowadays—maybe it’s a little easier in MLS because in the NFL, the NBA, and baseball it’s really hard to get much alone time with the players, with the coaches and everyone else. And Donovan’s a busy guy as well but he made time for me as did Alexi Lalas and many other guys within the Galaxy to give me a really clear picture of what was going on inside the team.

PROST AMERIKA: Since you did many of the interviews that you did at the launch of the book, things have gone several weeks and LA has actually done quite well as a team. Have you been surprised that the ripples of this book have actually not affected them on the pitch?

GRANT WAHL: You never know what’s going to happen. I think winning tends to kind of feed off itself and I think winning also causes athletes to push other distractions into the background, and LA’s winning right now and has been since Beckham got back, in part because Beckham has helped the team, but mostly to me because Donovan is playing at the highest level he’s ever played over an extended period of time. He’s really really at the top of his game right now. I think Bruce Arena, the coach of the Galaxy deserves a lot of credit for managing this situation, for getting Beckham and Donovan to meet behind closed doors, and trying to defuse this and go forward. And so far it seems to be going OK.

PROST AMERIKA: On a broader point, do you think Americans fully understand the David Beckham phenomenon?

GRANT WAHL: Not completely, because I don’t think Americans at large have really embraced him as a soccer player. They seem to have as a celebrity and that’s a huge part of what is David Beckham worldwide–that the reason he’s so famous is because he’s a celebrity but also because he’s had so much success in soccer. Clearly he’s not had as much success in soccer in America. The first two seasons the Galaxy didn’t make the playoffs, tied for the worst record in the league last year. Now Beckham is only coming back midway through the season as a part-time player and wants to do the same next year. I think from the start when Beckham arrived in 2007 to so much fanfare around America, it was a real missed opportunity that he arrived injured and was injured for most of that first 2007 season. He’s never had that many eyeballs in America watching him since, and as a result hasn’t had a chance to really convert the non-soccer believers who are interested in his celebrity and not soccer.

PROST AMERIKA: You raised an interesting point about David Beckham arriving here injured, so I’m going to ask you a question along the lines if you want to speculate and play what-ifs. And the first question would be: how different would the Beckham USA story have been if he had been fit when he arrived?

GRANT WAHL: I think it could have been very different because you remember when he had his introductory press conference there were more than 700 media members who attended. It was a surreal scene in Los Angeles at that point. He was on the cover of Sports Illustrated. No MLS player had ever been on the cover of Sports Illustrated wearing an MLS uniform. He was in all of the celebrity magazines and on Entertainment Tonight and his first game you had this amazing buzz around this friendly that the Galaxy had with Chelsea—two weeks of promotion on ESPN television up to the game, and it really seemed like Beckham was in a position to take all these eyeballs and actually bridge the gap between celebrity interests and soccer interests, but when the first game happened and he could only play in the last 14 minutes, he wasn’t able to bridge that gap. And you only get one chance to make a first impression, and for all the Americans who were watching at that point, they didn’t get to see 90 minutes of David Beckham.

PROST AMERIKA: If you will indulge me in another speculative question, how different would the Beckham USA story have been if England had lost every World Cup qualifier, there’d never been any chance of them going to South Africa, and he’d never therefore gone to Milan?

GRANT WAHL: Well, I think Beckham’s frustrations really grew over 2008 as well as the Galaxy—it became clear they were a bad team, and I think Beckham’s own priorities might have changed because he was back in England in the picture and he was being called in. I think Beckham has made it clear that Fabio Capello, the England coach, is the reason. He has said to Beckham, you have to be playing in Europe to be considered for the World Cup with the national team. What Beckham doesn’t acknowledge in my mind is that Beckham himself wants to be playing over in Europe, and that’s why he said in February, I want to move to AC Milan and not go back to Los Angeles. He tried to get out of the league and I think he had regrets about how early he had come over to America, and had regrets about joining a league where he’d lost more than he had ever lost in his career before.

PROST AMERIKA: So you think he’s been slightly disingenuous by using England as the excuse for wanting back?

GRANT WAHL: I think he’s turned Fabio Capello into the bad guy to American fans and Galaxy fans when in fact Beckham himself wanted out.

PROST AMERIKA: That’s a very interesting question, because Fabio Capello has fired out another warning to Beckham just this week, that he expects him to find another club in Europe after the MLS season is over. Should and will LA Galaxy tolerate this being mucked about any further?

GRANT WAHL: Well, I think the Galaxy need to have some pride in a sense, and they have, to an extent. Tim Leiweke runs that team with the ownership group. Bruce Arena obviously is the head coach and general manager. The Galaxy did play hardball with AC Milan. I think Milan and everyone else in world soccer felt that once Beckham announced in February that he wanted to go to Milan it was inevitable that the transfer would happen, and it didn’t. So I think this is a new Galaxy since Bruce Arena took over. It seems as if the Galaxy has been less willing to hand over the keys of the franchise to David Beckham and his people as they did in late 2007 under Ruud Gullit, which really became a disaster, so I guess what remains to be seen is how things go for Beckham and the Galaxy over the next few months now that he’s back with the team, and he’s helped the team for the first time since he’s been with them and does the team want Beckham back, say after the 2010 World Cup, which is when he finally wants to come back and rejoin the team for good.

PROST AMERIKA: You think if England have a lousy performance and Beckham plays dismally again–this is wishful thinking on my part–do you think that might make LA more inclined to say screw you, you know, you didn’t want to do with us when it suited you, we can get another designated player, and you’re nothing special anymore?

GRANT WAHL: You know, I haven’t gotten that vibe from the Galaxy. I do get the sense that they realize that Beckham does help their bottom line, and it actually does help their team when he’s with them, but I guess the question has to be because of this part time nature of what Beckham wants his tenure with the Galaxy to be, would the Galaxy be better off having a different designated player who is with the team full time, who didn’t want to play in Europe for the first half of the MLS season and not join the team until after the World Cup. I have a hard time seeing how this arrangement is good for the Galaxy from a soccer perspective, and too often in this whole Beckham experiment it hasn’t really been about the soccer and it really does need to get to that point for there to be credibility in the future.

PROST AMERIKA: Do you think David Beckham cares what the LA Riot Squad think of him?

GRANT WAHL: [laughs] I don’t know if he does or not. I’ve been surprised by Beckham’s initial reaction to them when he had the critical signs, the catcalls, on his first game back in Los Angeles and he actually confronted some of the fans at halftime. I thought Beckham would come in and go on a charm offensive and try and win over the fans and even perhaps even apologize for not being on the team for the first half of the MLS season and putting them in a tough spot, and then he could just say, you know, look I’m here now, I’m going to give you all of my efforts, and I want to win here. And I think the fans would have responded better to that but strangely Beckham has never apologized and in fact he seems to have this sort of “how dare you?” attitude toward American soccer and even American soccer fans who dare criticize any of Beckham’s actions or lack of commitment over the last couple years. I think Beckham is surprised that Americans in this lower level league are demanding full accountability from him.

PROST AMERIKA: Do you think that Beckham’s wife Victoria has anything to do with this? I know that she’s got ambitions of her own, she has a clothing line, some kind of cologne launch going on. What role does she play behind the scenes?

GRANT WAHL: Well, Victoria had a big influence over the decision to move to Los Angeles in the first place. It’s a city where they—the family—are very comfortable living. That has never changed. They still enjoy living there, their kids enjoy it, and it’s also a better place for Victoria’s career, such as it is. And whether it’s what she’s doing in fashion or being a good place to launch the Spice Girls reunion tour, which was actually quite successful, you know, Los Angeles is a much better fit for her than Madrid ever was, and for that matter Manchester. So I think that’s something that could be taken into account from the start but at the same time I think there were questions on David Beckham’s part about the soccer, even coming over here, and a lot of his worst fears were confirmed when he saw that the Galaxy was – it was just not a very good team.

PROST AMERIKA: Not many of our listeners are going to know what you’re about to tell them, but you have a very strong Seattle connection, don’t you?

GRANT WAHL: I lived in Seattle for four years, from 2000-2004, and loved it, and always knew that Seattle was a good soccer city but had no idea that it would embrace the Sounders as much as it has, and it’s really a special story in American soccer. I can’t wait to come out there—hopefully sooner than the MLS Cup final weekend, but I’ll be there at least for that and will keep watching from afar here on television and enjoying the crowd.

PROST AMERIKA: Is there any chance of you doing an expose-all book on the conflicts inside Sounders FC?

GRANT WAHL: [laughs] Doesn’t sound like there’s too many. Sounds like Kasey Keller getting angry at some of the young guys on the team is about as good as it gets at this point. They’ve had a great season. I know they’re going through a little rough patch right now, but this is one of the biggest success stories in the history of American soccer.

PROST AMERIKA: Now we have the two questions that you’ve been dreading that I’m asking but you must know they’re coming. With all your inside knowledge, and watching LA play, what’s your take for Saturday?

GRANT WAHL: Well, we’ll have to wait and see here because I’ve just gotten word that Landon Donovan is actually sick after playing down in Mexico yesterday.

PROST AMERIKA: Tell me it’s not swine flu because I said that on the radio show earlier.

GRANT WAHL: Well it’s an interesting situation. Keep an eye out on SI.com for some news on that one, but no Donovan is not feeling well and he’s on a real tear of late, he’s really carried that Galaxy team, scoring a ton of goals, just being a dangerous threat every single game and if he’s not at full strength I think Seattle has a chance, even though I know Seattle hasn’t played very well on the road this season, and you know that’s going to be a pretty big crowd down in LA this weekend.

PROST AMERIKA: Which Leiweke is the better sports executive?

GRANT WAHL: Good question. Well if you’re going by the results of last two or three years, on and off the field, Todd’s making a good run for it at this point. From a business perspective, you have to say that Tim Leiweke has done so many things right from the business side. You have the Los Angeles Galaxy’s acquisition of David Beckham; the Galaxy has made millions of dollars off this, as has David Beckham. And Tim Leiweke pulled off another really shrewd deal in getting Beckham to come back to the team in mid-season and get a lot of money out of AC Milan for it. But at the same time soccer’s not just about business. Like all sports, it’s about winning and I think the winning really got forgotten in Los Angeles over about a three or three and a half year period there and only since Bruce Arena was brought into the team did it seem like it’s maybe heading in the right direction again.