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Reports: Beckham staying in LA

Beckham (Getty Images)

After months of speculation, questions and premature reports, it appears that the final twist in the David Beckham offseason saga has the player staying right where he is.

According to multiple reports from France and England, Beckham is not going to be signing with Paris-St. Germain after all, and a return to the Los Angeles Galaxy seems imminent.

PSG sporting director Leonardo reportedly told French outlet L'Equipe that, "It's over. It's a shame. But the welfare of his family in L.A., the wish not not to change everything in his life, weighed heavily."

Meanwhile, PSG president Nasser al-Khelaifi reportedly said on French radio that,"David Beckham is in Los Angeles, and he's going to stay there. He will not come, that is clear."

It is important to note that no new deal with the Galaxy has been announced or signed just yet. The BBC is reporting that MLS has offered Beckham a "one-year rolling deal" that would have the original Designated Player back for a sixth MLS season.

What do you think of this development? Did you think Beckham would return to MLS all along? Shocked that it appears he won't be ending up at PSG or anywhere else?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. First of all is not like DPs don’t count, they just don’t count for millions only 300-400K and now with the young DP rule teams only take a 200 to 150K hit depending on how young the player is.

    Is not like the rule was exclusive to LA, so the whole “oh MLS bends the rules for LA” crap is really getting old, They ended up getting 1 championship and 2 trips to the finals and 2 bad seasons out of it, get over the damn fact is what I would say to the ones
    complaining about LA getting “help” in the way of rules changing from MLS

    As for Chicago, they only signed 2 Mexican DPs 1 was a bust but hardly had any time to prove really anything, Blanco was pretty successful just kept running into those great Revs teams, the attendance was great with him and even a little bit on the road just for him. Pardo is NOT a DP and he is exactly the kind of player that they need in MLS and by that I mean he WANTS to be here, in his case he lives traveling and more to live and play in different leagues, heard him on an interview for Glenn Davis’ radio show and it was in English he’s a class act, too bad he had too many hot heads while he was part of “el tri” in his era

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  2. Martin Rogers, “They also allowed a provision that will give Beckham significant freedom to play a full role in the London Olympic Games in the summer, not just as a member of the England squad but also as a figurehead and ambassador for the Games.”

    I wonder if MLS/Galaxy have a minimum number of games he’ll play for LA galaxy?

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  3. Kinnear/the Dynamo are too stubborn and tight fisted with money to leverage the big market (despite AEG’s suggestion to go big), and Dallas — as they just showed signing a Panamanian and a Colombian — seem more inclined to bring in Latin Americans via value-shopping than to make a deliberate splash.

    Chicago, on the other hand, has plenty of history of splashing on older Mexican talent. Whether it’s all it’s cracked up to be is another question.

    The Revs can’t justify signing anyone without worrying about substantial losses, given their present attendance and no promise that even a good team would be attended well enough to be worth it.

    Vancouver actually did quite well picking up “random” players like Hassli.

    LA’s efforts last year, as well as MLS’ creation of DP rules to give them further license, is arguably destabilizing of the league. Until they changed the rules from 1 DP — itself a rule designed to allow LA to evade the cap limits for Beckham — to 2 and then 3 DPs, you could theoretically pull a Dynamo and balance your cap across the roster, and try and beat the DP teams on talent based on the idea that all the money on Beckham would weaken the overall product elsewhere on the field. But now with 3 DPs you can start to field a good chunk of the team from players with cap going off books, and it’s harder for the stingy teams to keep up. LA kind of seemed on another plane than everyone else.

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  4. For MLS purposes he suffices but for PSG it is more like a question of buying his image rights, as the Guardian jokingly put it.

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  5. Bingo. It seems like a large part of the decision making was because his family is here and the quality of life is good. It’s true, we’re not talking about a 28 or 30 year old, but we ARE talking about someone who was offered a lot of money to go play for a team that’s trying to fight for a championship in France. Regardless of the age, a player choosing here over France under the circumstances is pretty cool. MLS/US is not a soccer world-beater because of this, I just think it’s a good little win for us.

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  6. I forgot to include his 4 playoff assists this year. That should up his average a little.

    Anyway, I get your point. He made selfish decisions which led to his injuries. The point remains that most players choose country over club. Can’t fault him for that.

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  7. I’m hoping Barrett can heal his dislocated foot soon….He will be out for a full 3 months before they start pre-season work of getting ready for Seattle.

    I think Donovan goes up top and either Birchall or Franklin plays the right wing, the Brazilian they signed I forget his name, he’s more of a Juninho replacement from what I remember but Birchall can slot in that holding center spot Juninho use to have and Franklin can play Right mid. Ideally they need Leonardo to do this so AJ can play Right Back, but they can keep AJ at CB with Omar and play either Bryan Jordan or Hedjuk at RB?

    If Barrett can stay healthy with a 2nd season & training camp he should score 10+ he was close last year playing half a season

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  8. If they sell Donovan either in the Summer or next year in the Winter Transfer window, they can go after someone like Drogba or Lampard where ever they may be…

    I think MLS needs to make a play for either Saviola or Pablo Aimar who are BOTH at Benfica, 2 types MLS lacks the most great scoring FW & CAM center attacking/creating MF

    If LA wins or make it far in CCL this Spring I think we can maybe see LA finally selling him & letting him go and then someone like Ronaldinho or whomever can come but I think Ronnie stays in Brazil until or after Winter transfer of 2013-14, he wants to play in that Brazil 2014 World Cup!

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  9. Agree, eventually we can be invited as a Confederation, maybe 2 Mexico teams 1 US team and who knows the better of a 1 Costa Rican, 1 Honduran 1 Canadian team in a tournament of some sort….. maybe a wild card between US and Mexico to 4 teams fight for a 3rd Concacaf team….

    But we need to win CCL consistently and prevent Mexico from having 4 teams in the quarter finals and 2 or 3 in the semis or 4 like last time I forget when or 2 in the final….

    Copa Libertadores and Copa America might happen but in the next cycle of MLS after Russia 2018 or 2020 Olympics….

    When we will hopefully have about 12 million+ salary cap and who knows 5 or 6 DPs….

    Copa Suramericana that might be a more realistic option..

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  10. Considering this new LA team is the 1st to win a Championship with a DP and the first in the Beckham era for LA I don’t know why people keep crying conspiracy theory, it sure as hell brought more attention and world wide fans to the league hopefully as more and more people watch maybe MLS makes better money off of International TV revenue, hell they might match the US TV revenue lol

    Get over it, LA suffered 1 horrible season and got AJ & Omar of the 4 in the back line, they got Franklin the year before after having a bad season the year Beckham got there and then after the 08 season completely collapsed on them, they brought in Arena who brought in Dunivant the 4th of the back line, Ricketts and brought back Saunders and now a young Perk (former US U-20 starter) then got Leonardo who should be a key piece if healthy all next year, Juninho who might be a HUGE loss, he also brought in Magee, Bichall, Stephens in 10 draft and at one point had gotten Alecko but he had to retire…

    Get over it already, SKC & RSL the other 2 semifinalists had DPs, SKC had 2 lol, NY, FCD, Columbus, Seattle also had DPs and so did 6 of the 8 teams who didn’t make the playoffs. And I’m not counting Chivas even tho they technically had Angel for last 2 and a half months…. Hope Goats keep him btw so they stay competitive…

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  11. What does that say about the quality of life in the States for players then?

    I mean I know most want to play in NY or LA, but I’m sure as time passes they might be able to entice guys to go to Philly or DC which is a damn gas tank away from NY even if you have a gas gussler SUV lol or a short train ride never mind the 1 hour flight.

    Chicago and the Texas teams are the ones to me that need to get on with it and take advantage of their big market status and in Chicago’s case the draw of it being a popular city to live in…

    If only the Revs would get their act together….a DP or 2 of great name might fill enough seats at Gillette to make SSS and bring back that franchise, same with DC!

    I hope a place like Vancouver or RSL can land someone, or a Columbus or Colorado to help with the sad attendance…

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  12. Not after losing to Seattle in the next round they won’t.

    It is nice to see the continuity. I would rather see teams that is similar year after year, slowly changing rather than, ok let’s bring in the next version of the Beckham show.

    Seattle had to shake up their team enough, but if they meet, you would still, at this point, feel like it is a rivalry of the teams that had some great games over the last few years.

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  13. I don’t have a dog in this fight, but that is 14.6 games per season over the last 3 years ?

    Good thing he had 15 assists last year, at the very least he got 5 assist per season. 😉

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  14. good news for sure! if he was serious about making the Olympic team, he needed to ensure he was playing 90 minutes. at PSG, that was not guaranteed and likely wasn’t probable.

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