Posted on 05/31/2005 9:52:17 AM PDT by cfo
David Beckham has hinted that he may be prepared to play in the United States before he ends his career as signs of his growing popularity in that part of the world were evident ahead of England's friendly international with Colombia.
Beckham was greeted with the kind of media frenzy and flashing light bulbs that have probably not greeted a soccer player in America since the days of Pele, George Best and Franz Beckenbauer in the mid 1970s as he gave his pre-match press conference.
In the immediate term the 30-year-old sees his playing career at Real Madrid and he is prepared to hold talks over a new deal - he has two years left of his current contract - in the summer.
But Beckham, who is launching his soccer academy in Los Angeles later this week, did not rule out the possibility of a spell in the States before he hangs up his boots.
(Excerpt) Read more at soccernet.espn.go.com ...
FIFA has USA ranked #10 (tied with Italy) for May 2005.
Yep once Beckham is over the hill "over there",he will grace the US by making big bucks here for mediocre going through the motions type play.
Still much better than Germany at #19.
Just wondering on how it is compared. Are you comparing average attendance? Or are you comparing season total attendance?
How many games do MLS teams play in a season? How many do the NBA?
How many cities have MLS teams? How many have NBA teams?
I'd hazard to guess that when you look at total number of people that attend games in a year, the NBA is WAY on top.
Do you really need a strong MLS?
All the best US players would naturally be attracted to the big European leagues anyway. As is the case of the migration of Dutch, French, Czech, and South American players to the English, Spanish and Italian leagues.
Each team is only allowed like 3 foreign players on its roster.
Beckham will come here and play only because we have great fashion models.
Where have you been? 1990?
On the US starting national team, at least 75% of its players are on international teams.
Many of the guys in the MLS are quite good ....several very good in fact ....but comparing them to some of the European and South American guys is like comparing a Mustang to a Ferrari. I've seen some Brazilian dudes do things with a soccer ball that should be against all the laws of physics in several dimensions. No comparison.
The problem with soccer and hockey is that the great players don't get to show their greatness often enough in a game for Americans to care about the sport.
Did you just say a team can only have 3 people on a foreign roster? or are there 4 people on a soccer team now?
My point:
1.) MLS has many world-class players. Just watch Eddie Johnson (FC Dallas of MLS) and Landon Donovan (LA Galaxy) score on the world's best national teams next year in Germany during World Cup 2006.
2.) Many Americans play in Europe's best leagues making millions of dollars - some play on the best teams in those leagues.
3.) America needs a strong MLS to allow for the development of young players (like Freddy Adu and Clint Dempsey) - without MLS, our National Team would be ranked over #100.
4.) In 20 years, MLS can become one of the world's top leagues. Much like NHL and NBA are in their respective sports.
Landon Donovan -- he decided to return to the U.S.
Landon Donovan went to Bayer Leverkusen and stayed for like 2 months and then came home. Pathetic really.
What I said was crystal clear. Only 3 foreign players on a team roster are allowed. Its always been that way, so that it is not a retirement league for European players, as you want to claim.
Donovan made the right decision. His girlfriend is an actress in LA, so he had personal reasons for the move back home.
In addition, he gets to play the full 90 in LA, which is critical as the National Team prepares for the World Cup next year.
A maximum of 3 of the 25 players on any MLS teams can be foreigners. The rest of the players are US resindents.
But there just doen't seem much of an appetite for the MLS in the US. It lacks that passionate, competitive angle that makes the other world leagues so exciting.
Which makes me wonder whether a pan-Americas league would be more appropriate? Would a New York fan get more excited about a match against a decent Columbian or Argentinian side rather than against Chicago?
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