The Governator on Football

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Political Fútbol
By Jack Bell

Arnold Schwarzenegger, the governor of California, is best known for playing the Terminator. But Saturday night, during the game between Chelsea and David Beckham’s Los Angeles Galaxy at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif., the Govinator accepted the role of soccer advocate.

ESPN reporter Bonnie Bernstein cornered Schwarzenegger and asked him about the sport and its role in the U.S. athletic landscape. He provided perhaps the most intelligent and passionate defense of the game a U.S. television audience has ever heard:

Bonnie Bernstein: Governor, growing up in Austria, how popular do you remember football or soccer being back then?

Arnold Schwarzenegger: Well, I played soccer myself. I think this, like in America every kid plays football or plays a sport. You know in Austria everyone played soccer. As you grow up through school you play soccer and then later on also, and you watch every soccer game and become a fanatic about the whole thing. So, it’s really nice to see how soccer is becoming so big here in California and all over the United States. I’m looking forward to that great great explosion in soccer.

BB: Obviously, Beckham and the Galaxy have the nation’s attention right now. How realistic do you think that soccer will be able to kind of keep that momentum going and will it grow in popularity?

AS: Well, I think they are doing the right thing by bringing big stars over here because it’s all about that you know to get the media attention, as you can see. As Beckham says since he has come here he has gotten the most amount of media attention anyone could ever get. So that’s really staggering.

I think that he would inspire a lot of young kids, my young kids, who are really looking forward to coming here. That was not the case four years ago. So I think it starts with him and that is the key thing. And to educate the people of the great athleticism that it takes in order to become a great soccer player and what it takes a kind of a tremendous amount of speed power that you have, an explosive power you have to have out there and the coordination and how talented you have to be with the ball. Left leg. Right leg. How well you really have to keep the ball under control with your head. The passing. The accuracy. So, it’s really, I think they are some [of] the greatest athletes, it’s still a debate, may be are the greatest athletes in the world and it’s terrific to watch.