RF Generation Message Board

David Beckham has announced that as the end of the current season he will be leaving Real Madrid and going to MLS side LA Galaxy for a deal spanning 5 years and giving him with and estimated income of £128,000,000 over this period. This equates to around £533,000 a week.

News story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/europe/6248835.stm

I'll warn all you Americans now, you are about to be media bombed by the Beckhams. Davids aftershave and Victorias fashion brand are going to be everywhere.

MLS may get some publicity in Britain now though, as currently it is not shown on any channel. It used to be around 5 years ago on late night channel 5 but nothing has been seen or heard since.

250 million for 5 years. How can that league afford that?

I can only assume mass promotion throughout Europe, merchandising to the extreme. Beckham is high profile over here, which ever team he plays for will have millions of replica shirts sold on the basis of it. I also assume TV rights will also be negotiated on the back of it.

I know he is huge but soccer inst here and will his European fans still like him. After all he did leave to go to the MLS.

I don't know but it seems your entire soccer league is going to be built on the back of him.

Yeah that's what I was thinking.

Why did he come here? Money only? I thought the European leagues where a lot better then MLS.

I hate Beckham, he ruined English Football. It used to be hardcore maniacs, now it's all pansies and cologne.

Yeah, I was going to post a thread about this, but since this one was already made it will suffice.

Needless to say I know he is getting paid an unbelievable amount of money, and I don't know how the MLS or LA Galaxy can afford it, but why the hell is he giving up playing in the Majors and going to the minor leagues? Wouldn't this be like forgoing superstardom in the Premier League and taking a multi year dear in League Two? Where's the challenge? Where's the prestige? To me, it seems as though Beckham isn't in it for an American Challenge (c'mon it's the US, where Footballs are handled by your hands), but more for the money.

The transfer is all money orientaited. Like you say why would you moved to a not very strong league if it wasn't for the quarter of a billion dollars you were going to be paid.

This won't be the first of the Europeans moving to the US though Edgar Davids is poised for a transfer to FC Dallas. Davids is a Dutch midfielder in his twilight years, and hasn't been able to hack it in the Premier league for the last two years, he obviously wants to come to the US for one last pay day.

News story: http://home.skysports.com/list.aspx?hlid=441084&CPID=8&clid=6&lid=2&title=Davids+in+Dallas+link

Beckham moving to the US is either going to make or break the US football league. During the 1990's the English league saw an insurgence if foreign players especially to the Premiership, at the time people predicted the end of Britsih football as these foreign players were entering the league well past their prime and obviously just wanted the money. For a couple of years this was the case, but we now get good young foreign players plying their trade, and this makes the Premier League the best league in the world for football.

 The same could now happen in the US. The money is obviously there, what they need to do now is market it properly. Sky Sports pay big money for football, the pay millions to show Premier League, Championship, League One, League Two and the Conference from England. They also show German Bundesliga and Spains La Liga so another countries football would fit in nicely, especially as next season they are not allowed to hold a monopoly on the TV games and some have to be distributed on other channels (Setanta and terrestrial TV).

Personally I can see the US league going from strength to strength as long as they change a few things. The first being salary caps, as you can't attract the best players in the world if they can't be paid millions and the structure of the league is changed as I think it is currently crap. Eastern and Western conferences may work in other sports but football you need a proper full league with aprox 20 teams in it, playing each once home and once away in a season. Whoever is top of the league is champions, no play-off crap. Introduce a domestic cup competition and then try and introduce a proper World Club Championship, maybe to take over from the current European Champions league or run side by side with it. You get temas like Manchester United, Chelsea, AC Milan, Real Madrid, Bracelona and Bayern Munich playing over there, sponsors money will coming pouring in by the bucket load, and I am talking billions of US dollars.

The potential is there, the money is there, it just needs marketing and structuring correctly.

Yes, Britain, but the rest of Europe really doesn't care much for Beckham. Maybe Spain, a little.

To be fair Mark, Britain is fairly split on Beckham too. Some people think he is an arrogant dick and others worship the ground he walks on.

I think the challenge for him is to make the MLS popular in the US. Which won't happen.

Agrees  :nod:


"Football" just isn't that popular over here.

But they do have an opinion about him. Here most people don't and I doubt it's different in most other European countries.

Well I have an opinion of him, he's a wanker.

Was that amount with endorsments too, or just salary?

Still will not make me watch soccer. I'll be funny if they come and play KC since they'll be playing at some college or high school stadium while Arrowhead gets a remodel.

I'm sorry, but not even David Beckham can save MLS. 

And his salary will be mostly paid by endorsements, fyi.

Ken

From what I heard he is very arrogant and that is an ungodly amount of money and way too much.  How is LA going to pay that?  The whole league isn't too popular.  I don't think it will work.  I like soccer but this is insane.  (David, if you read this please give me some money.  You don't need it all. :D)

He's got to keep Posh updated in the plastic surgery realm and buy Burbury (sp?) for her and the kids. So no, he doesn't have any extra money I bet.  ;)

Oh... I like how it's been reported that the highest paid player makes $900,000 or something.

While I heard he's a really nice guy. A bit of a weirdo, but not unfriendly or a jerk. That's also the feeling I get when I see him on tv.

I suppose it's what you perceive as being arrogant. People in England think he's an air of arrogance due to his England playing days, were it was reported that he was the man making all of the decisions behind the scenes, on team selection and tactics, therefore negating Sven at the time. He also gives off the impression he is a much better player than what he is, he acts as though he should be regarded with the greats such as Pele, Maradona and Eusebio, but in reality is no more than a good player, not world class. He is marketed extremely well, as is his wife, and I suppose this will make a lot of people believe he better than other players to to be constantly being in the public eye as opposed to players such as Frank Lampard or Steven Gerrard.

It is all about the marketing, people in the US have heard of David Beckham.

I pose the question how many of you in the US have heard of players such as Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard or Peter Crouch. Or even some of the dutch players like Robin Van Persie, Ruud Van Nitelrooy or Arjen Robben?

If David Beckham reads this, pay off my student loan and I'll stop calling it soccer and take an actual interest in it beyond making soccer mom jokes and calling it the wimpy version of rugby.

David Beckham is the only player that I've ever been able to name. Nobody seems to follow the sport after the high school level over here.

What about Cruyff, Pele and Maradona?

^only ever heard of Pele.  The other two I've never heard of.

Same here.

I'm amazed at that. I knew footy wasn't popular in the US but I would have thought some of its history and heritage would have been documented at some stage, maybe when the World Cup was held there in '94.

Post pics maybe then I would know them.

It's true, Pele and Beckham were the only two players I could name prior to last year's World Cup. Now who could forget Zidane? Truly he's been forever immortalized in America for his head butt.

I knew Brandi Chastain and Mia Hamm from the US Women's team though. Does that count for anything?

^Sports Bra!!!!!!!!

In other football news USA captain Claudio Reyna is set to return to the US from Manchester City, he is expected to sign for Red Bull New York apparantley.

That's why we remember them.  She had no tits, though.  What about the Columbian who I believe retired whose name I cannot remember.  He had the wild afro hair.

I believe Shaggy the player you are reffering too is Carlos Valderrama:

(http://images.google.co.uk/images?q=tbn:s0k2gdL9ddYh4M:www.uglyfootballers.com/content/images/footballers/world_cup/valderrama/images/Valderrama02.jpg)

I recognize Valderrama.

The only names I know are:

Pele
Brandi Chastain
Mia Hamm
David Beckham
Tony Meola
Alexi Lalas

if it came to (American) Football, Basketball, Baseball and heck even Hockey I could name tons more.

Shall I start a identify the football player thread ala identify the the screenshot, for non-europeans? ;D

Thats funny so go for it.

Oh I know all the people on Funk_Buddy's list. I also know Ronaldinho and the two Ronaldo's and the US player Toby some thing.

Now that I think about it I could probably name more tennis and gymnastic stars than soccer. :P