Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s move to Manchester United was one of the highlights of the transfer window, but the Swedish star keeps one eye focused on MLS after nearly signing with a club this summer.
Ibrahimovic revealed that he received an offer from David Beckham’s MLS Miami project prior to signing with the Premier League club. Ibrahimovic’s deal with Manchester United is for just one season, and the forward did not close the door on joining MLS at some point in the next few years while stating that he believes he can “play until I am 40”.
“David is a good friend of mine, and he has asked me to play for his (Miami) team,” Ibrahimovic told Goal. “For now, I want to achieve big things with Manchester United, but I have a lot of respect for the MLS, and anything is possible.
“I am not ruling out the MLS,” he added. “Once I had decided to leave PSG there were many offers, but with Zlatan that is normal. I know that teams from the MLS were interested, but the opportunity to play for Manchester United, and of course to work with my good friend Jose Mourinho again, was impossible to turn down.”
Beckham’s Miami project hopes to join MLS in 2018, as the club looks to finalize plans for a new stadium.
What do you think of Ibrahimovic’s comments? Would he be a good signing for Beckham’s Miami team?
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LOL — he said, “the MLS” …
In many languages that article is required, so in translation this is what you get.
Surprised he didn’t say “the Zlatan” as well….
Would he be a good signing for Beckham’s Miami team?
…ugh, what team?
I’m sorry, but an article like this is begging for mockery, laughter and humiliation at the expense of whatever Don Almighty and Becks have cooking at Miami MLS.
This one falls into the “too easy” category, so I won’t take the bait!!!
Too bad. He would’ve enjoyed playing for his inexistent team in their inexistent stadium in front of their inexistent fans. Life don’t much easier than that.
They ( I don’t know what to called them, as they don’t even have a team name ) are signing players?
I don’t understand MLS’s reluctance to cut bait on this. They are selling a franchise for at least $80 million below market, in a questionable market, that doesn’t seem to be working. Why? There are people lining up to invest. Begging to invest in US soccer.
Someone needs to uncover the rest of the story, as this doesn’t make sense.
They want Beckham to exhaust the option and my guess either accept some sort of buyout or just walk away. He has an option for discounted rights but hasn’t gotten the team going enough to get his fee bill. If the team never exists MLS is never underpaid for the rights. If Beckham insists on the Miami option for too long, MLS will at some point pay him some amount to walk away, my guess.
I think MLS would be happy with a team someplace else but with NYC existing and LAFC already in the works without him, I don’t know what alternative Beckham would accept. I don’t see Beckham residing or owning a team in San Antonio or Phoenix or San Diego or some of the other potential expansion cities without a MLS team. The big star cities of NYC and LA have two teams each and I can’t see MLS awarding a third this soon. So the most likely outcomes, to me, are either MLS lets someone buy his rights and move the expansion concept somewhere more sensible (I mean, not only is Miami a bad idea, but they are also uncooperative on a stadium? why bother….), or he accepts a payout for his option and MLS handles further expansion as they see fit.
I don’t think MLS wants that badly to be in Miami, it already has (bad) history in the league. I think they want to finish off their deal with Beckham and either he has a team or is cashed out.
Its the MLS!! They really, really want to get an MLS team in that market mainly for the TV market saturation as its the 5th largest in the US. Apparently it was not Beckham’s first or even second choice, but BECAUSE of the big discount on the franchise fee, he was kind of “pointed” to accept Miami for his team. And while Claure is the supposed “money” behind the team, he has yet to open any purse strings to acquire the land needed in the expensive Miami real estate market, forcing them to look at bargain properties like in Overton, which if it can be built, is not a bad site.The other problem is just the politics in Miami, which is just plain bad with republicans at the State and Democrats at the local level rarely agreeing about anything.
The first site was abandoned when a single property owner tried to milk millions out of the group for land that was worth only tens of thousands. Normally when that happens, you can use eminent domain proceeding to value the property equitably, but apparently the school district in this part of Miami, which had the most to gain from the deal backed out of initiating imminent domain after threats from some state legislators. The current holdup is the price of the acquisition of the city/county land adjacent to the primary and already purchased site and formalizing plans with other private entities in the area to provide the needed parking, as the 10 acre site is stadium only. The needed parking has to be tied down, if it’s not on-site, and it needs to be formalized BEFORE entitlements can be sought.Then there is the “promises” of the financial benefits for the area that still have to be formalized (developer agreements) before the project entitlements are awarded by the city. This is routine development stuff and if you think Miami will accelerate these processes for MLS fans, think again.
what the heck? July Fools? there isn’t even a team in Miami!