Posted by 'ForeverHoop' at Vital Football

History books teach us that Americans have always been very good at taking risks. The nation was founded after the colonies told Mad King George where to stick his crown, after all.

So it should come as no surprise that Major League Soccer have landed David Beckham, who will reportedly earn around £70,000-a-day for the next five years when he leaves Real Madrid in the summer.

Of course, they don't really care about his footballing ability - which is seemingly limited to "running" at walking pace and only ever using his right foot. They want "Brand Beckham" to transform the American public's perception of "soccer" from a game for women and kids into a game that real men will play (okay, Beckham and real man in the same sentence, but hey...!).

Eventually, this will lead to the colleges adopting "soccer" as a sport as worthy as American football - and they have the structure in place to start producing top-notch players very quickly. If things do go as well as MLS hope, it's not beyond the realms of possibility that the USA will win the World Cup within a generation.

If rumours are to be believed, Beckham will sooner or later be joined by Robert Carlos, Ronaldo (the fat one), Zinedine Zidane and Jose Mourinho.

On the subject of Mourinho, MLS are using a similar tactic to the one Chelsea used before their Russian billionaire arrived out of the, erm, red. Chelsea fans were used to players like John Bumstead and thought Dennis Wise personified the peak of footballing excellence.

Then Glenn Hoddle was made manager - a man with strange views on reincarnation in relation to people with disabilities, but with a name known across the continent. But there was still no chance that Chelsea could expect Europe's best to move to the open latrine that was Stamford Bridge.

So they were very clever and convinced a few key players, reaching the end of their careers, to move across - Ruud Gullit and Gianluca Vialli to name just two. They brought the glamour across, made Chelsea an acceptable place to go.

Then Roman Abramovich came along, and there is little doubt he was attracted by the glamour that had been created. And we all know about the rest.

So the MLS are doing the same with Beckham and the other old boys who follow. At the moment there is no chance that the likes of Steven Gerrard or Cristiano Ronaldo would move to the States. But in seven, eight or nine years? It's very possible.

For that is the most worrying thing - Europe, the centre of football, could soon be relegated into a dilapidated backwater if the Americans do succeed. And they have a habit of doing just that.

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Interesting post but I'm not convinced that Beckham and a few other stars will persuade US colleges to 'adopt' soccer in the same manner as college football...but clearly if they do then the potential for future USA teams will be enormous.

70 grand a day!!! wtf?

I'm a Galaxy season ticket holder and I think that the move is already paying off...the team sold 2,000 season tickets yesterday already. The Galaxy averaged over 20,000 per game last year in attendance and I would expect that they could sell out all 27,000 for the games this year.

The story has been one fo the leads on ALL major US news broadcasts and has also been a front-page story in major US newspapers like the NY Times, Wsshington Post, and the LA Times.

Obviously, the quality of play in MLS is nowhere near the same level as the premiership but it is getting better and it is probably as good as mid to lower table Championship teams. While Beckham is certainly not the same player that he was at Man U, he is now probably one of the better players in MLS...his current skills should add to the quality of the team.

I think this move will be great for the Galaxy, MLS and the growth of the sport in the US.

I am not naive enough to think that Beckham can do for U.S. Soccer what PELE' could not. However, IMHO, he could bring as much attention to international football as he will to MLS or the Galaxy. If done right, Beckham will be presented as an abassador for the BEAUTIFUL GAME in general not just the MLS game. In a country saturated with professional sport, one player can not expect to take a product from 7th or 8th to 4th. However, if his presence can add legitimacy to the game then U.S. fans may begin to ask "what ever happened to Beasley, Boconegra, and that Clint Dempsey guy?"

80p per second!
WTF!
That's what has just been on my local independant radio station.
They said they could imagine DB sat in his Spanish castle.
BLINK....''80p''
BLINK.....''80p''
''Romeo Blink for Daddy....80p''
''Vicky Blink............80p''



I think we have just time-slipped back 30 years and the MLS will be where old players go to finish off their careers.......































Who will Big Sam buy now???

a question for our american friends especially tim seeing as he holds a season ticket.. what would you say the average wage at galaxy or any other mls club?


i'm sure it's a lot less than 80p a second

The average MLS player makes less than $100k per year.
I think that each MLS club has a TOTAL AGGREGATE salary cap of $1.9MM excluding one exception per team to sign a superstar foreign player at any price. Instead of actually signing a superstar, it would appear that the Galaxy have used their bogey on Becks.

It's certainly true that the average salary at the Galaxy (or any ohter MLS team) is less than $100,000 per year. One would think that there could be some resentment at the vast difference in pay. I wonder if any possible resentment would be counter-balanced by the attention and press coverage that the Galaxy is now receiving in LA. The team has had more media coverage in the last week than in any other time that I can remember. This town has a lot of high-profile sports teams (Lakers, USC, Dodgers, etc.) and it's tough to get coverage.

I think the players realize that it's going to be a bit of a circus when Becks gets here and I think that they may look forward to the Galaxy being a big media story. This is the off-season for MLS and one normally wouldn't read ANY stories about the Galaxy in the LA Times.

I'm still very positive about this move...and I'm looking forward to the season starting in April.

Will be down to Becks to shout the drinks after every game.

I still don't think the US are close to being a football culture. The A League in Oz made a lot of Dwight Yorke playing over here last season and Sydney FC won the league with him. Other major football codes are so ingrained in the psyche here though that 'soccer' is a poor second cousin. A second cousin who still provides a healthy number of players in the major leagues across Europe.

This argument has been around in the US for a long time, they won't like to see games that often end in a draw, where you might not see goals scored and where the physical contact is not on the same level as US Football. I am not sure if they have draws or some other way of deciding drawn games. Fortunately for the game in the US I think it is attracting new supporters rather than converting old ones, much like here. And relying on the multicultural base of the population, which provides a strong football (soccer) background.

All that being said I think it will still be at least ten to twenty years before a strong culture and a league to compete with other major sports exists in the US.

america welcomes victoria

Absolutely brilliant!

tickled me too

the times have changed since Pele, Best and co bankrupted American 'soccer' back in the 70's. American administration seems to be smarter financially and America seems more open to the game at the grass roots level, children especially. if the kids love the game at an early age then that'll do nicely - and if American can find 11 good kids who can turn the national team into contenders, which out of a population of 350 million (or whatever it is these days...) shouldn't be that difficult! and who knows?

Beckham on his own isn't gonna change the world, mind you - if others join him though, who knows?

I should imagine Landon Donovan especially will be wondering where his slice of the big money is, seeing as he's a quality player in his own right. resentment could be an issue, I doubt it though...