Romeo Beckham lets his play do the talking as Inter Miami try to keep him out of spotlight
Wearing a beige trench coat and playing the part of a youthful holiday muse, 12-year-old Romeo Beckham starred in Burberry’s 2014 Christmas ad “From London with Love.” The global campaign was a mega-hit for the British brand. Following the launch, Burberry’s sales boomed around the world, while the ad itself has garnered over 10 million views on YouTube.
The second of David and Victoria Beckham’s four children seemed destined for a life in fashion. And while that may still be the case — Romeo, now 19, recently featured in Saint Laurent’s provocative fall campaign and has also represented Puma — the 19-year-old is now focused on advancing his football career in the United States.
After a stint with Arsenal’s academy from 2014-15, Romeo gave up on football altogether. His father joked that he “retired at the old age of 13” as tennis became the game that Romeo wanted to pursue. It was a revelation that initially caught David by surprise.
“The other day Romeo turned round to me and said he didn’t want to play football any more,” David told the Radio Times in 2015. “Part of me was devastated but part of me was relieved, too. He’s got other passions and I like that.”
Yet, in the six years between the end of his time at Arsenal and the start of his time in Miami, football clearly was never completely out of the picture for Romeo. Today he plays for Inter Miami II, the reserve team of Major League Soccer franchise Inter Miami, which is co-owned by his father, and managed by the elder Beckham’s former Manchester United teammate, Phil Neville, whose son Harvey plays alongside Romeo. Inter Miami II is part of a new league venture called MLS Next Pro, a 21-team competition that can best be described as an MLS reserves league.
David Beckham and Phil Neville remain close friends, to the extent that Neville’s hire at Inter Miami in 2021 drew widespread criticism and raised questions, forcing Beckham to address claims of nepotism. Before the start of the 2021 MLS season, Beckham told reporters that Neville was “the right man for the job” due to his work ethic, personality and experience working with some of football’s top managers as a player.
“Of course people are always going to turn around and say, ‘Oh, it’s because he’s your friend,’” Beckham said. “It’s nothing to do with him being my friend. I’m an owner of a club with Jorge (Mas). Our ownership group, don’t just employ our friends, we employ the best people, whether it’s on the field, off the field, in our backroom staff, the staff that we have working in our training facility at the stadium. We’re running a serious soccer club here and I think at the end of the day, we hire people that we feel are best suited for the job, and my loyalty to Phil has always been there.”
When Romeo signed a contract with the club last season, the news was lambasted as another example of David Beckham’s personal relationships influencing business at Inter Miami.
Romeo’s first appearance for Inter Miami II, at the time called Fort Lauderdale CF, came in September of 2021. After a solid 79-minute shift, Neville told reporters what life in South Florida would be like for Romeo.
“The first thing that David said to me was, ‘You have got to be harder on him than anyone else,’” said Nevile. “He has got to work harder than anyone else to get into that team because there will be questions, there will be expectations on his shoulders.”
Romeo has since quietly gone about his business on the pitch, closely guarded by Inter Miami and his father’s public relations team. He hasn’t been made available for interviews since his arrival in the U.S.
Inter Miami, in their third year of existence, hasn’t leveraged Romeo’s fame off the pitch, either. He’s mentioned in post-game press releases only when necessary, and he remains one of many faceless avatars on the MLS Next Pro website.
Multiple requests from The Athletic to speak to Romeo were turned down by Inter Miami which, in this case, worked directly with Beckham’s communications team. A request to interview Inter Miami II’s English manager, Darren Powell, was also denied, because the request was aimed at talking about one specific player.
Most MLS clubs are eager for coverage of their MLS Next Pro players and projects. It’s a new venture that the league hopes will consistently unearth America’s next young stars. In general, access to players and coaches, even at MLS’ highest level, is quite progressive. In Miami, reporters can walk into the home team’s dressing room and talk to former Real Madrid and Chelsea striker Gonzalo Higuain 15 minutes after the final whistle. Allowing the press weekly access to the players is a league rule, which makes the restrictions around Romeo all the more peculiar.
For now, Romeo’s thoughts on playing in America are unknown — only those closest to him are aware of his objectives as a professional athlete.
But beyond the questions and careful handling are some favorable statistics that seem to be going under the radar. He has gradually improved since his first season, in which he made just six appearances and didn’t record an assist or a goal. He was eager from the start though, showing a willingness to press high from his right wing position and track back to defend.
Like the lower divisions in England, this level of American professional soccer is more physical than it is tactical. The games are pacey and open. Romeo’s build is slender and, at times during his first year, he looked out-matched physically against stronger opponents.
He has adapted well in his second season and is now an important player for Powell, though. Romeo has started 15 of 16 games so far and leads the team with seven assists, which puts him in a tie for first in that category across MLS Next Pro. In his first start on April 5, Romeo had three assists in a 3-3 draw over Philadelphia.
Despite a pass accuracy of just 63.6 percent, Romeo is Inter Miami II’s leader in key passes with 23 (that ranks eighth in the league) and he’s fourth in the league in total crosses (25). The right-footed Romeo is a technically sound player with a decent first touch, good vision and composure when he’s on the ball. He has produced 16 total scoring attempts (third best on the team) and five on-target scoring attempts.
His six total completed dribbles tells you that 1-v-1 situations are not his strength. Romeo is a traditional straight-line winger who looks to outpace his defender and reach the end line. His 14 interceptions are fourth best on Inter Miami II and, surprisingly, Romeo leads the team in tackles won (23), a statistic that reveals an aggression to his play. He has good field awareness, but one obvious area of improvement is in possession. He has committed 28 turnovers, which is among the highest in the league.
For this story, an MLS Next Pro staffer was eager to promote one of the league’s young playmakers. The Athletic received individual video clips of every one of Romeo’s assists and his best chance-creating moves of the season.
“Basically, look, I don’t like singling out individual players, but Romeo is improving a lot,” Powell told reporters in April. “What you find is a young man that comes and is committed to getting better every day, and now you’re seeing some of the benefits of that work. When you work hard daily in training and you work at your game and you progress going forward, which is what obviously his ambition is to do, you’re going to see that. Just really pleased with him. I’m really pleased with the whole group.”
Powell was careful not to heap too much praise on the team’s most famous player. And his circumspect assessment, while accurate, is the type of coach-speak that could describe many players on the team. But after Romeo scored his first goal from a well taken direct free kick on July 10, the corporate strategy of anonymity was put to the test.
Even Inter Miami and David Beckham’s personal camp couldn’t have written a better script. Romeo’s first goal in the United States was reminiscent of his father’s dead ball expertise. The goal quickly went viral on social media, yet any similarities to his father’s skill set are minute at this stage in Romeo’s development. The younger Beckham has shown an affinity for providing accurate service from wide areas, but his potential at 19 years old is a long way from where his father was at the same stage of his decorated career.
The level of MLS Next Pro isn’t anywhere near what an FA Youth Cup can deliver, for example. Plus, while father David’s path was clearly laid out ahead of him at 19, Romeo’s footballing goals and aspirations remain a bit of a mystery. Is Inter Miami a temporary stop before he focuses on something new, or is he on a path toward first-team football in MLS?
Currently, Inter Miami’s MLS side is dealing with the financial sanctions that the league office handed down last summer after the club was caught cheating the league’s roster and budget rules, particularly in regards to the signing for former French international Blaise Matuidi.
The scandal has forced Inter Miami to reboot their project and play well below the lofty expectations that David Beckham and managing owner Jorge Mas had long promised. With less money to work with, Neville has had to rely on younger, inexperienced players, while the club figures itself out again. When asked how players like Romeo and Neville’s 20-year-old son Harvey, a serviceable fullback himself, fit the club’s development pathway to the senior team, Neville, curiously, didn’t mention either player.
Instead he talked about young players needing to earn their playing time, that no player is guaranteed a place in the starting XI and that, today, too many people feel entitled to opportunities that they have not merited.
“I learned a very, very big lesson at Manchester United early in my career,” Neville said. “That every year we brought probably three, four world class players or the best players in the league to our team, but there’s always going to be a pathway to the first team in this football club. What I would say is that if you’re on the MLS II side or you’re a young player in the MLS, there will always be a pathway but you’ve got to be better than the person in front of you. And if you are, you’ll get opportunities. If you’re not then you don’t deserve your opportunity. That is life.”
Harvey and Romeo have not logged a minute in MLS, but Neville gave both players their unofficial first-team debuts in a friendly against FC Barcelona last month. Harvey played the entire second half and Romeo came on in the 86th minute. The match ended 6-0 in favor of the Catalan side, a forgettable result for Neville, who before kickoff had described the game as Inter Miami’s “biggest match in club history.”
El hijo de Beckham ya está en la cancha. 👏👀
Romeo Beckham a la cancha. 🔥@InterMiamiCF 0-6 @FCBarcelona_es#Barcelona | #InterMiamiCF | #Amistoso
🔴 EN VIVO
📺 TUDN
📱👉 pic.twitter.com/Fc5VWcnbmn— TUDN USA (@TUDNUSA) July 20, 2022
But the opportunity to play against the likes of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Sergio Busquets, Jordi Alba and new Barça signing Raphinha, was a major milestone for the young players. In addition to Romeo and Harvey, Neville also gave a second-half run to 18-year-old academy product Noah Allen, who has featured in MLS games.
The Romeo Beckham project is still in its early stages, and while it looks promising from afar, the insulated environment that he’s in has limited its impact. And if his career continues on its current trajectory, his enforced anonymity won’t be feasible forever.
(Photo: Andrew Katsampes/ISI Photos)
