As the new Major League Soccer season draws closer, the departure of David Beckham appears imminent. The Los Angeles Galaxy and England midfielder is currently on loan at AC Milan, and is agitating for a permanent move to Serie A.
The opinion in Milan is, of course, pretty positive by the sound of things. The press in England seem to be behind a permanent switch to Italy too. But our reporting of the situation, and the situation itself, is hitting more cynicism Stateside.
Here are the views of some top MLS bloggers:
- 100 Percent Soccer: "Beckham's remarks are the culmination of weeks of speculation over AC Milan's intentions, with club officials from the president down virtually to the janitor (well, O.K. it was the AC Milan lawyer, but you get the idea) saying over and over again they want Beckham to stay. The Galaxy's response? Almost total silence."
- MLS Daily: "AEG chief executive Tim Leiweke, the man credited with bringing Beckham to the United States back in 2007, has rejected the general media sentiment that Beckham is long-gone, vowing that the English midfielder will return to the Galaxy in March unless a substantially higher offer is presented to them by AC Milan."
- MLS Offside: "The last two years, Beckham has played more or less half-heartedly with a bunch of scrubs — at least when you compare him to his AC Milan teammates — and has proved he is still capable of success on the level. The point is, if you are the MLS, sell high. And there is no better time to sell then right now, when a huge club will splash out huge dollars for your aging superstar."
- Match Fit USA: "If The People is right, this looks like some kind of hybrid transfer agreement; on the face of it, I'm not sure why Milan would agree to something like this. If they lose Beckham after 2010, why would they pay the Galaxy $22.2 million? I guess it's possible that the Italian giants recognize Beckham's value as a "shirt-seller", especially if he is in the England squad in South Africa."
- MLS Talk: "I firmly believe Beckham’s main interest in coming to Major League Soccer was to chase the almighty dollar and grow his personal advertising to benefit himself, anything more than that like getting the Galaxy to the playoffs would be a bonus. Now that his personal soccer career has improved far from what he thought it would be at this time, he now acknowledges he needs to stay at AC Milan so that he can still be under consideration for the English national team."
It's a fascinating situation, bringing in comment from three footballing nations. I think people generally accept Beckham is better suited to Milan, and deserves to pursue that move if they want him. However, over the pond they're not best pleased about Beckham's conduct in forcing Major League Soccer's hand.
(Photo: Mind Over Sports)
3 comments:
As an american I can't fault him for wanting to stay at Milan. He has obviously had an impact on the squad and it is a much much bigger club than the Galaxy. If that's what gets him back in the national team than more power to him, that appears to be his goal. He wants to be a huge name in national football history and more caps will help.
How would you say the mainstream US press is reacting to the possible move?
They really aren't talking about it too much. I few of the pundits on ESPN hit on it and they said basically what I said, they aren't surprised. Soccer doesn't get a lot of time here especially considering how big the steroid scandal in baseball is blowing up.
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