David Beckham has had rather a rough go of it in Los Angeles. He has been hurt, he has gone off to play chunks of years in Europe, he has been rather knocked around in the book “The Beckham Experiment” (the Landon Donovan comments). And then he suffered a ruptured Achilles’ tendon that took him out of the 2010 World Cup.

But somewhere in there he gained a fan, a smart one, in Scott French.

Scott is a sports journalist I’ve known for a long time, and he is primarily a soccer guy.

He now works for espn.com … and he just did something I didn’t really expect to see.

He wrote a massive story on David Beckham and his relationship with the Los Angeles Galaxy.

The Scott French I know is a very sincere guy. He will not take a position or outline a story to curry favor for the sake of currying favor.

Therefore, it got my attention when this long, very positive  story on Beckham appeared on the web.

In it, French posits that Beckham does, in fact, care (and deeply) how the Galaxy does. That helping/leading the Galaxy to its first Major League Soccer championship on his watch really matters to him. He wants to leave behind the legacy of a championship, just as he did at Manchester United and Real Madrid. That he has become an example and even something of a leader with the Galaxy, after the rough start.

And perhaps the most surprising part of the story … French portrays Becks as an ordinary, almost dull guy. A regular Joe with a great right foot.

With the Galaxy one game away from playing in the MLS Cup,  it is worth a read. I recommend it. And nice work, Scott.