Becks Says Goodbye to Football

Well, today it was announced that David Beckham will join the Los Angeles Galaxy to play in the Massive Lump of Shite (MLS) that is Major League Soccer (MLS). The deal is completely ridiculous, because the right-footed one will be earning £128 million over 5 years, which amounts to just under £26 million per season, which translates to about half a million pounds per week, which amounts finally to just under £3000 per hour (!!). This is atrociously ridiculous, because David Beckham, at 32, playing in an absolute joke of a league, has become the highest paid player in football to date (a record which will probably not be broken for a very long time). We all thought the inflated wages that Chelsea paid were bad, but Beckham will now probably earn more than John Terry, Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba combined. Like I said... ridiculous.

I feel bad for Becks, because he's only 32, and still had a fair amount to offer top-level football teams. Perhaps he didn't want to play for a smaller team than Real Madrid or Manchester United, but was the LA Galaxy the solution? I keep feeling like it was Steve McLaren dropping him that made up his mind, but to be honest I think McLaren would have eventually bungled around with the England team and then called up David Beckham in an attempt to solve everything. He was 6 caps short of the 100 mark, and i'm quite sure he would have ended up getting there.

Becks has basically decided to retire. That's all this is. He is being paid a massive, massive amount of money to go and play in a rubbish league. Dennis Bergkamp played at the top level for Arsenal till he was lamost 38. Zidane almost conquered a second World Cup final at the age of 34. Teddy Sheringham has been playing comfortably at the top level for smaller clubs for the last 2-3 years, and he's 40 now. Big Alan Shearer was banging in the goals until the age of 35. And crucially, Becks has never had any major injury problems.

I say this equates to retirement, because nobody goes to the MLS and comes out bigger, especially not at 32. He has gone to enjoy the sunshine, the money, and the American celebrity lifestyle that he has professed his love for, for so long. He's said goodbye to European football, said goodbye to the Champions League, said goodbye to England, and said goodbye to ever winning a major trophy again (he's won nothing since his last league title at Man United in 2002/2003)... so let's all just say goodbye to Becks now.

As for the whole aspect of improving the MLS... this is a joke as well. Granted, Beckham is probably the youngest of all the old heads they had brought in (Stoichkov, Limpar, Valderrama, Djorkaeff, etc)... but is probably amongst the least talented of this "superstar bunch". Do Americans not watch football? (No, they are probably too busy watching soccer). Yes, Beckham is a great player, but if you knew anything, you'd know that the reason why he is so famous is because of his looks and celebrity, not his football. Beckham was never a particularly naturally-talented footballer, but he was an incredible professional, and dedicated team lad, and a good guy. Alex Ferguson said he would spend hours and hours on the training ground developing his incredible ability to strike the ball, and working on his free-kicks and set pieces, and that is how he got to where he is. He was never particularly quick (less so now), and was never particularly tricky or exceptionally skilful, but he was frightfully hard-working, consistent and able to maximise his abilities (especially at United). So what are Californians and fans around the USA going to expect?

Are they expecting to go see the world famous David Beckham, and see a guy lighting up stadiums with exceptional skill and dribbling and loads of goals? I hope not. They're going to get a footballing icon for sure, but one who's already slow legs are on the wane, one who can provide exceptional service but relies on having good players around him who can provide the requisite end product. He will score a fair amount of goals from free kicks, and i'm sure the team will score more from his set pieces, but what they basically have is a player who mentally is in retirement mode. This is not to say that Becks will not try hard, but what is his motivation really? He will have his new lifestyle, and his football academy to distract him as well. I don't doubt for one minute that he will hugely raise the profile of football in the states, but I hope that people will not be disappointed by him. ESPN ran a survey on their site, and apparently 72.7% of the visitors said they were going to be more interested in the MLS because of his arrival. So let's see...

And lastly, another mention about the amount of money spent. Would it not have been better to sign 10 players instead for that money? They have in no way improved the quality of the football with an ageing superstar, but for the money paid they could have signed 10 good players and paid them more than what they would have earned in Europe or South America. And what about the other, existing players in the MLS, the most lowly paid of all American sports? How do they feel about David Beckham coming in and earning more in one week than they earn in 5 years? As it is the boisterously capitalist USA somehow manages to run the most controlled and communist-like sports federations, where the MLS controls the transfers and wages and signings and owns the players... this anomaly makes things even more bizarre.

But enough ranting and raving. Good luck to Becks, and I hope he can win something with Real before he leaves for his nice sunny retirement experience.