When Major League Soccer adjusted its restrictive salary-cap regulations at the end of last year so that teams could sign big-name 'marquee' players, the move became instantly known as 'The Beckham Rule'.
The reason was obvious - whenever fans talked about raising the league's profile in the US and beyond, they said it would need a name such as Ronaldo or David Beckham to make an impact. With the latter's LA-based soccer school, his oft-professed desire to one day play in the US, and his association with Hollywood by proxy (celebrity wife, the film Bend It Like Beckham), Beckham's signing with the league and the LA Galaxy began to seem inevitable the longer he spent languishing on the Real Madrid bench.
This is a huge marketing and publicity coup for MLS, despite the moans of detractors that the league is in danger of becoming like the star-studded, but doomed, North American Soccer League of the 1970s. Such a comparison is facile. This time there is a solid structure in place after 10 years of mostly sensible planning. MLS has gone down a careful path to the point where it's comfortable with taking on a player of Beckham's stature, and is not just blindly signing a cheque as the quick-fix NASL owners so often did before they went bankrupt.
But what about the standard of football? Due to his limitations as a player, Beckham may actually fit in very well in US soccer. While his name reaps sponsorship money, merchandise sales and enhanced media attention, we all know that on the field he's brilliant at what he does - but that that includes little beyond crosses, free-kicks and probing long passes. This will be ideal: he won't dominate games, but he'll produce the kind of highlight moments that can be easily packaged to a sporting audience that loves short, sharp thrills.
I think this is a pretty balanced take on what the Beckham "era" of MLS will be like. Plenderleith's subheadline for this piece is: It's easy to be cynical, but David Beckham's move to the MLS could work out perfectly for all parties.
And boy, was he right about the cynicism. Just go look at the comments on his original post. According to folks over there *I* could do a better job then Becks and I'm slow, fat, closer to forty than thirty, and haven't played a competitive game of soccer since the 5th grade.
(Thanks to Southlandish for the link.)
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