David Beckham leaves Real Madrid .... to join MLS

[bigC]

David Beckham is leaving Real Madrid and is coming over to play in MLS for the LA Galaxy. while he may be a talent in decline, he is still a big star and this is definitely a coup for MLS. i was planning on attending games in the inaugural season of my city's new team, Toronto FC, this year, and this ticket will no doubt be a difficult one to get.

story: http://www.tsn.ca/soccer/news_story/?ID=191771&hubname=

[ViN86]

damn, now the gf is going to drag me to an MLS game :|

[RussianHAXOR]

1. Beckham is a terrible player(got so lucky in the worldcup, and everyone knows it)
2. He was on the PRACTICE squad for REAL.
3. He got cut from the UK natl team
4. He Has no ability that REAL doesnt already have
5. 50 million a year is what they should be paying for top notch players not beckham
6. This is just a PR stunt and nothing else
7. Does the galaxy even have 250 million to pay him?
8. We need more european players in america than beckham.
9. US SOCCER SUCKS!:D

[Shamrock]

1. Beckham is a terrible player(got so lucky in the worldcup, and everyone knows it)
2. He was on the PRACTICE squad for REAL.
3. He got cut from the UK natl team
4. He Has no ability that REAL doesnt already have
5. 50 million a year is what they should be paying for top notch players not beckham
6. This is just a PR stunt and nothing else
7. Does the galaxy even have 250 million to pay him?
8. We need more european players in america than beckham.
9. US SOCCER SUCKS!:D

QFT No one is worth 250 mil

[Marvel_us]

Lol, according to Beckham...he did it for the kids. Rofl...yea right.

[nrdstrm]

1. Beckham is a terrible player(got so lucky in the worldcup, and everyone knows it)
2. He was on the PRACTICE squad for REAL.
3. He got cut from the UK natl team
4. He Has no ability that REAL doesnt already have
5. 50 million a year is what they should be paying for top notch players not beckham
6. This is just a PR stunt and nothing else
7. Does the galaxy even have 250 million to pay him?
8. We need more european players in america than beckham.
9. US SOCCER SUCKS!:D

You fail to realize that this WILL fill seats. I live in the LA area, and on the news they showed the Galaxy Season Ticket ordering hotline. The phones were ringing off the hook with people wanting season tickets.

It also gives the game more exposure in the US, wich is a good thing no matter what...

[RussianHAXOR]

Yea, PR...hes just a pr stunt. Hes a terrible player though.

[sytaylor]

He wants to be in LA
His wife wants to be in LA
They want to "break" america and hopefully put FOOTY on the map.

[UDawg]

Lol, according to Beckham...he did it for the kids. Rofl...yea right.
Pele did the same thing. Pele truely believed in trying to make soccer popular in the US. I'm sure the money was very nice but how do you know what He really wants?

BTW the comment about Beckham being a terrible player if obsurd. Just because he may be over hyped does not take away from the skill he did have. He was a good solid player.

[Marvel_us]

Pele did the same thing. Pele truely believed in trying to make soccer popular in the US. I'm sure the money was very nice but how do you know what He really wants?

BTW the comment about Beckham being a terrible player if obsurd. Just because he may be over hyped does not take away from the skill he did have. He was a good solid player.

Yea after seeing his whole interview this morning I get what he meant. He wants to be one of the first to make soccer mainstream in America, which is understandable.

Hell, my neighbor's son who just turned 6 idolizes Beckham along with other top current players. Most of his gear is from David's brand.

[npras42]

Whoever said that David Beckham "sucks" as a player has absolutely NO CLUE.
I wouldn't disagree that he certainly is not the player he once was but he's probably STILL the best deadball/free kick taker in the world and an effective midfielder.

He was taken out of the England team (there's no such thing as a UK team - Scotland, Wales, N. Ireland all have their own national sides) because England have numerous world class midfielders who are as good as any of the other big names of world football. We also have 2 or 3 young players who have the potential to fit in to this picture as well, and deserve a chance.

He was unlucky to be dropped, and he could probably still play competitively for England if he was picked. The story is the same at Real. They have a lot of other massive names and some young players who they need to nurture for the future.

If he wanted to make a move to another big club in Europe playing in Serie A, the Premier League or the Bundesliga, he could do it with ease. I wouldn't be surprised if at LA Galaxy his impact was enough to turn them in to a Western Conference winning side.

[bigC]

QFT No one is worth 250 milhey, i'm worth $250 mill! :) sign me to a mega-contract and i'll underperform and gladly cash the checks each month.

Beckham may not be the best player in football (soccer) but is he the best (most talented) player in MLS? everyone sees the hype and PR machine behind him that created a myth out of a man, but he can't be that bad (although, during his time at Real Madrid the team didn't win any major trophies, but that may have been more about the Galacticos philosophy and the revolving door for coaches. his stay there did benefit the team's financial bottom line, though).

http://www.tsn.ca/soccer/news_story/?ID=191809&hubname=

[sytaylor]

The british press have long since learned that underestimating Beckham is unwise. He may not be the most talented pure footballer in history, but I would have him in the top 5 for most dedicated. His ability to turn around bad situations is impressive. After France 98 he could have been over. Instead he became a hero.

[RussianHAXOR]

He was a good solid player.

Exactly... but now he sucks...

All he is...is a great deadball kicker. Period. His midfield is very lacking and he cant get the ball up the field like many other players that get paid alot less than him.

[Shamrock]

hey, i'm worth $250 mill! :) sign me to a mega-contract and i'll underperform and gladly cash the checks each month.

Beckham may not be the best player in football (soccer) but is he the best (most talented) player in MLS? everyone sees the hype and PR machine behind him that created a myth out of a man, but he can't be that bad (although, during his time at Real Madrid the team didn't win any major trophies, but that may have been more about the Galacticos philosophy and the revolving door for coaches. his stay there did benefit the team's financial bottom line, though).

http://www.tsn.ca/soccer/news_story/?ID=191809&hubname=

bigC you ain't even worth 250 mil in F1 :P

[MUYA]

Exactly... but now he sucks...

All he is...is a great deadball kicker. Period. His midfield is very lacking and he cant get the ball up the field like many other players that get paid alot less than him.
Then you have not even seen him play. In the 90s when he played for Utd, his distribution and crossing were the reasons why the likes of Cantona, Scholes, Cole, Yorke and later Ruud were putting them in and on the right wing where he did not favour to play. Just because you do not idolize the player does not mean he was a bad player. He came good for Utd many a times in which he was a vital cog for us in winning so many championships in the 90s.

[stncttr908]

For me, personally, if it garners some attention for the MLS and soccer in general in the US like the Women's World Cup did a few years ago (selling out the Rose Bowl for a f'ing soccer game? Insane!) then it's definitely worth it. I just don't see it being enough though.

[UDawg]

Exactly... but now he sucks...

All he is...is a great deadball kicker. Period. His midfield is very lacking and he cant get the ball up the field like many other players that get paid alot less than him.
He doesn't suck. You a friking idiot as usual. I bet if the player doesn't have ankle braking moves with flash and all sorts of cany coated jukes you think they are crap. Any one who says that Beckham sucks is a tool who doesn't know football. All players decline in skill with age. He wanted to keep playing and decided he had nothing left to prove in european football so he decided to be an embassador for the game in the US and still keep playing the game he loves.

There should be a law against idiots such as your self from using the web. Your the reason we have goatse.

[UDawg]

The british press have long since learned that underestimating Beckham is unwise. He may not be the most talented pure footballer in history, but I would have him in the top 5 for most dedicated. His ability to turn around bad situations is impressive. After France 98 he could have been over. Instead he became a hero.
Exactly! He is a great leader on the field. He knows the game but for people like russian, it is all about flash and over dribbling. Typical As in any sport there are players with great skill that can wow you with their moves then ther are players like Beckham who get the job done and WIN!

A former New York Yankie was asked if Joe DiMaggio was the best player ever. He replied "I don't know about about that but when you played on his team you won" And that is what it is about.

[RussianHAXOR]

He doesn't suck. You a friking idiot as usual. I bet if the player doesn't have ankle braking moves with flash and all sorts of cany coated jukes you think they are crap. Any one who says that Beckham sucks is a tool who doesn't know football. All players decline in skill with age. He wanted to keep playing and decided he had nothing left to prove in european football so he decided to be an embassador for the game in the US and still keep playing the game he loves.

There should be a law against idiots such as your self from using the web. Your the reason we have goatse.

Well, aren't you nice. Check your grammar before you attack me, because when you call me a friking idiot you might want to make sure you don't sound like one. There are many players that are over the age of 31 that get more playing time and more goals than he does but don't get nearly the pay. He's wayy too over hyped and they are paying him purely for his name and nothing else.

Beckham may have been worth somewhere near 100million way back when, but now hes not even near that. So i stand by my statement saying that he DOES suck, but before he didnt. He's declined as a player and he just isnt worth the money(for games). For bringing fans.... maybe.

Have a nice day. :D

[UDawg]

Well, aren't you nice. Check your grammar before you attack me, because when you call me a you might want to make sure you don't sound like one. There are many players that are over the age of 31 that get more playing time and more goals than he does but don't get nearly the pay. He's wayy too over hyped and they are paying him purely for his name and nothing else.

Beckham may have been worth somewhere near 100million way back when, but now hes not even near that. So i stand by my statement saying that he DOES suck, but before he didnt. He's declined as a player and he just isnt worth the money(for games). For bringing fans.... maybe.

Have a nice day. :D
Oh no so instead of addressing my points you have to go after grammar. that is the first sign you lost the debate.

You just don't like the guy so you dump on him. Boohoo, get your arss out there and play. Oh you can't. You're just another tart with a opinion.

A player is worth what ever a team is willing to pay. If that player fills the seats then he is worth every penny even if his skills have declined, because the game is about ticket sales, period.

Again, there should be a law about idiots on the internet.

[netviper13]

Some interesting commentary from Mark Simpson, British blogger extraordinaire and 'inventor' of the word "metrosexual":

So Beckham, the uber-metrosexual, the photogenic English athlete who transfigured himself from mere professional soccer player into global me-dia, is leaving Real Madrid Football Club, his home for the past three years, and is now heading for the City of Signs.

Arguably, Beckham became a Hollywood footballer years ago (around about the time of ‘Becks the virus’, posted below). Certainly his bosess at Real Madrid seem to have found Becks more style than substance.

But in a metrosexualised world style is almost everything now. Even and especially in the world of men’s sports. This is why his lack-lustre performance on the pitch during his time in Spain didn’t prevent his agent landing him a $1M a week salary at Los Angeles Galaxy - the biggest world sports deal ever.

Galaxy, like Real, have paid a hefty premium for Beckham’s merchandising power. Galaxy also believe, to the tune of a million bucks a week, that Beckham can seduce America, so long peevishly resistant to the sweaty, clean-limbed - and increasingly coquettish - charms of soccer, and ‘open up’ a spectacularly lucrative new young male market in the US.

Whether or not he succeeds, America had better get ready for a little more soccer and a lot more metrosexuality and Sporno. It was back in 2002 that the US was introduced to metrosexuality and its poster-boy, David Beckham (by, erm, me: ‘Meet the metrosexual’), and look what happened then. With Becks actually residing and playing in the US the results could be climactic.

America and Hollywood, so long at the cutting edge of commodifying masculinity, have fallen so far behind much of the rest of the world since the 1990s. Incredible as it may sound, American masculinity needs some tarty tips on how to tart it out more. Enter Becks, the tartiest tart in Tart-Town.

This is why Beck’s friendship with Hollywood’s box-office king/queen Tom Cruise is more than just another footballer going celebrity chumming. Cruise, the all-American Dream-boy gone wrong, needs Becks more than Becks needs Cruise who is now globally rather less popular than Becks. Because this is about media power rather than political or military power, it’s the inverse relationship of Bush and Blair.

Britain meanwhile will enviously and resentfully watch his every move reflected across the pond, and start to feel like it’s missing out. And then Becks, currently out of favour here, partly because of last year’s World Cup disaster but mostly because we don’t forgive him for moving to Spain three years ago, will be back in vogue.

We Brits are fickle like that.

[RussianHAXOR]

Oh no so instead of addressing my points you have to go after grammar. that is the first sign you lost the debate.

You just don't like the guy so you dump on him. Boohoo, get your arss out there and play. Oh you can't. You're just another tart with a opinion.

A player is worth what ever a team is willing to pay. If that player fills the seats then he is worth every penny even if his skills have declined, because the game is about ticket sales, period.

Again, there should be a law about idiots on the internet.

People like you are why we need admins.:D look at how you are openly flaming me.

I addressed your argument and all you say is that he fills seats, which is what i said he does... BUT it doesnt mean hes a GOOD player. Oh, and if i did play soccer for as long as him and stayed with it... i might be a competitor. Plus i still have a good amount of years left till im his age.

[UDawg]

People like you are why we need admins.:D look at how you are openly flaming me.

I addressed your argument and all you say is that he fills seats, which is what i said he does... BUT it doesnt mean hes a GOOD player. Oh, and if i did play soccer for as long as him and stayed with it... i might be a competitor. Plus i still have a good amount of years left till im his age.
Are you going to squirt some tears now? You get a little butt hurt and want a mod to save you. LOL

[RussianHAXOR]

Nope, admins wont get involved. Trust me, they already know about it. I'm just stating a point with evidence.