Sid Lowe on how a new press frenzy awaits the England captain, David Beckham, in Madrid
There's no sign of Japanese fans stealing toilet seats or braided-haired teenagers being booted out of school, but Beckham mania has hit Madrid. And hit hard. The scene at Real's Ciudad Deportiva training ground is sheer madness. The queue of fans scrambling to get in snakes its way round the block while hundreds of journalists jostle for position amidst the 4x4s and flash sports cars.
The press are used to battling through, microphone in hand, for the comments of the greatest, most recognisable players in the world. They are used to Luis Figo, Zinedine Zidane and Roberto Carlos. But this is different; even Ronaldo's arrival didn't prepare them for this.
In a country where sports coverage is extraordinarily intense, David Beckham is big, big news. Spain's best-selling newspapers, the sports dailies Marca and As, each dedicated 12 pages to his signing, and he beamed out from television sets all over the country. Beckham is the most famous footballer in the world at the most famous club in the world, one with a media behemoth behind it.
A new press experience awaits the England captain, even after the euphoria fades. Marca and As are assiduous in reporting the minutiae of Real Madrid - they dedicate the club eight or nine pages a day, every day. Even if there's no news: when Madrid travelled to snowy Russia, for instance, Marca helpfully published a photo of gloves, hats and scarves.
Beckham will have to get used to the media's presence - and their demands. While in the Britain a single journalist from an organisation will attend a Friday press conference, Marca and As send four or five reporters to training every single day. They are joined by 50 or 60 more, from El Pais, the respected best-selling non-sport newspaper, to ABC and El Mundo, plus Canal Plus and TVE and countless radio stations and news agencies.
The media are granted a daily press conference and enjoy direct access to the Madrid players. Physically backed into a corner, Beckham will be constantly fighting a media scrum. It is a far cry from the closed world of British clubs. The hype is even more intense before the game between great rivals Barcelona and Madrid and Beckham will be expected to grant interviews - lots of them.
The newspapers - which remain fiercely loyal to their favourites, despite national circulation - also spend the week trying to undermine their opponents. That's where the Barcelona sports dailies El Mundo Deportivo and Sport come in.
Their bete noire is Luis Figo, who left Barcelona for Madrid in the summer of 2000. When he returned to the Camp Nou, he was greeted with a cacophony of abuse and a shower of missiles - including a pig's head. Beckham won't be met by such bloody-curdling hostility, but he will be a major target, having turned down Barcelona. The Catalan press will pounce on any sign, however slight, that all is not well, that his team-mates don't rate him or - better still - that he secretly wishes he had joined Barcelona instead.
Victoria, his wife, will be fair game too, albeit tongue-in-cheek. El Mundo Deportivo prepared for last year's derby by declaring "Barcelona's wives - pretty, fine, and classy - score a thumping victory". Chantal Overmars, Angela Kluivert and Karen Cocu are "beauties", while Manon Reiziger "is traffic-stoppingly spectacular". Real, the paper laughed, simply can't compete: the best is Figo's wife, Helen, "and she's FC Barcelona stock, really".
And then there is Spain's most successful export - Hello!. The celebrity gossip media here stretches far beyond magazines: television, too, is bursting with silicone-enhanced "It" girls, Marbella-prowling playboys, and famous affairs.
No wonder David and Victoria are so eagerly awaited, with open arms and cameras at the ready - but also with concern.
Javier Matallanas, Real Madrid correspondent at Marca, insists: "Beckham is the biggest thing that has ever happened to the Spanish media. Figo's signing was huge, as were Zidane's and Ronaldo's but this has had an even greater impact, not least because of what Beckham brings with him. We're all quite anxious about the way this could go - the last few days at the Ciudad Deportiva have been crazy."
And that is the point: Beckham mania is, in truth, primarily driven by the British and Japanese. Sure, the Spanish are excited, but on the sports desks they are also bemused and fearful. The Beckhams' raptorous reception in Tokyo left them wide-eyed, while radio hosts bellow hearty laughter when told of Beckham prayer mats and cover shots of a certain metarsal.
That is symptomatic of the Spanish press's outlook - and Beckham may be pleasantly surprised. As his new team-mate Steve McManaman points out, "although the media is mad at training and matches and while the pressure is incredible, it is all about the football. Away from the pitch it's relatively low-key."
There is no aggressive tabloid chasing from the sporting or mainstream media. "We respect them, but I don't think the English guys will be the same," one Telemadrid radio reporter said sadly. He has a point: McManaman, left alone for years, suddenly finds the press - the English press - outside his door.
Interviews are generally anodyne and purely football-led. If players are slaughtered it's for what they do - or don't do - on the pitch. Their private lives remain their own. Ronaldo recently separated from his wife, Milene Domingues. The story warranted little more than 20 words.
All that could be about to change, however. Magalluf might be used to it, but in Madrid they've never seen so many Englishmen before, and they're not sure they like it. After all, their newest colleagues hardly boast a spotless reputation.
"(Britain's press( sign for Madrid, too" ran the headline in Marca. The vultures are circling and the Spanish fear the consequences.
They fear that the English media will contaminate the atmosphere by bringing a more aggressive, personality-led and "dishonest" approach, which will foster suspicion between players and the press. Marca editor Elias Israel complains that "Beckham Mania is going to make the environment at Real Madrid very odd. A photo agency is now offering, for the first time, pictures of all the players' houses".
Britain's tabloids and Hello!'s more scurrilous cousins make a potent cocktail. The hugely successful gossip media has already shown tentative signs of turning to footballers - Ronaldo and Guti were secretly filmed in a Madrid nightclub - and the arrival of the Beckhams can only accelerate that process.
The sporting and mainstream press condemned the (tame) footage, but it could be just the start. Beckham will be the football story this year, while together with his wife he will also bridge the gap to Spain's other major market.
