Beckham to LA Galaxy

[Noodles]

So, Becks is moving to the MLS to make an obscene amount of money. Any thoughts on his impact, if any, on the sport's popularity in the US? Will more well known players be lured to the states and make the standard of soccer better? 'Soccer' is still something of a minority sport over there.

Oh yeah, did I mention that Beckham is going to earn an obscene amount of money from this?

[Moinllieon]

Suddenly, Alex Rodriguez has another reason to feel inadequate.

(Threadjack! By the way, how is it that Derek Jeter will earn more than ARod this year?)

Back to the whole Beckham thing. I think it'll make it slightly more relevant. People forgot how mainstream Pele's move to the Cosmos made soccer in the late 70s, the league over-reacted, over-expanded, and over-spent in antipcipation of earnings that never came. So yeah, it'll be featured much more on the sports news. But in terms of overall quality, well, that's something that he can't do by himself.

By the way, the management at Real Madrid (a team that I support) have been very petty and vindicative in response to this move, vowing to never play Beckham again and saying he'll make a great actor in LA. Seriously, you are going to hold it against a guy for going after the best deal for himself? This is the same RM that stole Figo, Zidane, and Ronaldo from other clubs and has just got done kicking Figo to the curb and is about to do the same to Ronaldo? And how about Capello? A guy who bailed on Juventus as soon as he could when he found out about the relegation and now he's gonna get all uppidy and righteous about contract negotiations? Some self-awareness, please!

[Exodus]

more famous and more importantly better players have already tried to raise the interest for soccer in the states in the 70s. the american people likes american football, baseball, basketball etc much more.

alot of people in the states have never heard of beckham before . beckham sucks i don't understand why people are interest in him at all and i think it's good for madrid to get rid of him cos he just ain't good enough.

LA Galaxy is just buying beckham for advertisement purpose only and it seems to work cos i have never heard of Galaxy before and now i have. anyway i think they are paying way too much for a player of beckhams calibre if you are excluding the advertisement part.

[Crazy8]

I think we all know that 90% of that salary are towards the advertisement of the team and the sport itself. I dont think any team would offer him that amount of money when his prime was over. His level of skill would/ maybe superb in american soccer but not in europe anymore.

[pemberly]

and his wife looks scary.

[Guo Xiang]

and his wife looks scary.

I wonder what happened to the 'fatty' diet regime Dave had supposedly put Victoria to.

[allunderheaven]

It'll raise awareness of 'soccer' over in the US and will attract more people to go see games as Beckham allthough slightly past his sell by date as a top footballer, he is still one of the most recognisable names in football.

His celebrity friends and supporters such as Tom Cruise, P Diddy and whoever else will definately add more to the publicity.

Im just glad he isnt returning to England, not that he would but its a relief that i wont be seeing his wife in the papers as often seriously a few years back it him or his wife was in the tabloids evey day, damn british tabloids!

[Extremer88]

The moment he chose to join LA Galaxy, his international career has ended too. It seems 100% impossible for Steve McClaren to call Beckham up while playing in US.

[James Ko]

I don't know about this deal... they try to do this once... with Pele, Becker... (sp) etc. and it folded a team because of this.

I thought if they are going to spend that much money at least buy a couple players that are better then beckham and see how it goes.

But I can understand they are trying to bring some interest to the sports... beckham is a popular guy and a pretty boy so I am sure that is what they are trying to do.