David Beckham signs for LA Galaxy

[AndyC]

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/spo...otball/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.

[Tynstar]

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

[AndyC]

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.

[Tynstar]

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.

[AndyC]

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

[Tynstar]

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.

[The Metamorphosing Leon]

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

[TraderJake]

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.

[AndyC]

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...tle=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.

[Arrrhalomynn]

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.

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

[AndyC]

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.

[Tynstar]

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

[captain_nintendo]

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

Agrees 


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

[Arrrhalomynn]

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.

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

[The Metamorphosing Leon]

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