It isn't much of a surprise that AC Milan would like David Beckham to stay in Italy beyond his agreed-upon short loan spell, but now the Italian powerhouse is moving toward making an offer to MLS to keep the English star.
Milan is set to meet with Beckham's representatives about buying his rights from MLS and a £4.5 million transfer offer is already being floated around as an offer.
So why would MLS and the LA Galaxy even consider selling Beckham? He has an escape clause in his current MLS contract that would let him leave on a free after the 2009 season.
The decision is simple, yet difficult. Does MLS hold on to Beckham when he clearly wants to stay in Milan, or does it consider the more than $11 million in transfer fee ($6.3 million) and Beckham salary ($5 million) the club would add to its bottom line?
It's time to vote. Do you think MLS/LA should sell Beckham?
What do you think? Should MLS let Beckham go? Think MLS should hold out for a bigger transfer? Do you want the league to hold on to Beckham? Could you envision the 2009 Galaxy being without both Beckham and Donovan?
Share your thoughts below.
I think this is a big mistake for Beckham. He’s had one goal in a 4-1 blowout win that was well decided before he scored. He’s playing along side some great, but also aging players that are making him look a little better than he is. What happens when he settles back into his true form, which is still good, but not AC Milan level, and starts to lose PT?? He then rides pine, which I’m sure is not how he wants to finish out his career. Milan is doing this because they are hungry for the revenue he brings, not because of his playing ability…don’t be fooled.
Screw him. Make him play out his contract! The Italians are slimebag cheaters. They corrupt everything they touch…And they are trying to bully the Galaxy and the MLS. Bruce Arena called them out, rightly!
So if Becks can leave for free in October..which is what i read on ESPN. I think LA will probably sell him…
But the better question is whether LA will be willing to let go of Donovan as well. Sadly enough, I think this signals the end of the becks experiment and Donovans Deutch Excursion
I’m surprised no one has talked about how shortsighted this move is on Beckham’s part. I seriously doubt he’ll be starting for Milan next year. So he goes and plays a few matches for a good but unspectacular team and then fades off into obscurity. How quickly everyone forgets that he came to MLS because he thought he had no chance of playing regularly for any of the “big” teams.
MLS must let him go on good terms, or it will be disaster for the league. That said, I have lost a lot of respect for Beckham. I don’t care that he is leaving, but he should have been clear that he wanted to leave when he took the loan. All that blabbering about staying true to his committment was BS.
Let him go!
Let him go. He wants to go, and it’s not like Beckham adds credibility to the league anyway. He raised the league’s profile but at this point he’s not worth as much to the league as he was in 07.
Come on people. £4.5 million is a lot of player who’s soon 34. 20 million? 30 million? Milan is not that stupid. In Europe the value of player is in relation to his skills, age, health and all that and not marketing value. Team like Milan wants to succeed, not just sell shirts.
In MLS there’s no relegation and nothing for teams in places 2-5, 6 or 7. So it doesn’t matter how your team fares, as long as it makes money. In Europe, who gives a f’uck what kind of money a team makes if it doesn’t deliver.
Edwin Van Der Sar was 35 when ManU bought him for £2 million. If he was in MLS you probably would have insisted a price tag of at least 50 million.
Let’s consider:
1. Apparently, Beckham wants to stay at A.C. Milan. Very important. This is understandable given the fact that in addition to the obvious attraction of playing big time once more before he retires, people have done nothing but ridicule him and call him washed up since he’s been here. No respect. Now, if they’re saying they want him, and he plays for A.C. Milan, all of that disrespect goes away.
2. I honestly thought Beckham was washed up, and I still don’t think he will last long at a top level in Italy. In any case, after a slow start with the Galaxy (injury) followed by a brief period of decent play, he has clearly dropped off considerably. More importantly, his affect on the league has dropped off considerably. He’s no longer bringing big crowds at away games and even some Galaxy home games are not selling out the 27,000 Home Depot Center when he plays at home. The honeymoon was way too short and nearly all of it is over.
3. It seems pretty obvious now that the Galaxy will NEVER have a good team as long as they have Beckham. As it is, it seems like the only thing they could afford, and are allowed under the rules, are Beckham, Donovan, and a bunch of lousy players. having Beckham is great, but at some point aren’t the Galaxy fans going to want to see the team actually win?
4. As others have suggested, they HAVE to get a good price for him. If they can come out ahead financially on this deal after so many said it was crazy, they have to do it, because it’s all downhill from here. A.C. Milan has to pay more money though. Hopefully, Beckham won’t make that difficult by telling people he’s not coming back, or by criticizing the Galaxy organization.
5. Finally, MLS has GOT TO fill the void that will be left by Beckham’s departure. The let down of seeing Beckham go could really hurt the league and the Galaxy, especially now with the economy in crisis and people reducing their entertainment budgets down to nothing.
I don’t think LA should get rid of Beckham. I think it is too important for the league to let Beckham go. He is an icon and the image of the league. There was also a lot of fanfare to bring him and I think to let him go would be a dissapointment. I thought Beckham wanted to help the league grow, and I though his decision to come here was genuine. I agree with Simms21, the league needs credibility and Beckham brings a bit of that, given that he is also playing in England, etc. Plus given that Milan is interested should make us be proud of MLS, it says Beckham playing here hasn’t lost his step.
6 million, no way. 6 million plus Shevchenko, ok.
I have to think all of the people saying “let him go” and “I won’t miss him” are folks who would go to soccer games anyway. Or they are people who don’t care if MLS folds in 10 years.
It is imperative that they keep Beckham at this point. Before Beckham was there any sign the league was getting better? Isn’t it getting better now? Don’t you think the $40 million bids for expansion franchises have something to do with the attention Becks has brought to the sport?
And it all goes away, poof, if he leaves. Then we are back to 4,000 fans at Gillette Stadium every week and no TV coverage.
simms21 is absolutely right. Even Becks Fever has ended in just 2 years, but he is still the biggest name in soccer and able to put butts into seats every games he plays in MLS. Beckham in MLS is more than his soccer skills and there is no one to replace him right now. While he should rather go to AC Milan for his own good but he is still worth much more for North American soccer.
MLS should put an overpriced tag on Becks.
I agree with those who say let him go but try to get more money out of the deal
If they sell Beckham, MLS might as well bury the league, ’cause it will be done. Selling Beckham will be an admission that MLS soccer sucks, and will be heard worldwide. The American general sports media will also jump all over it and use it as an opportunity to further sh!t on the league.
If Beckham wants to leave and excersizes his escape clause, that’s fine. But MLS would be BEYOND FOOLISH to sell him now.
Selling Beckham would also lead to the collapse of the DP rule.
I think it merits pointing out that Beckham slogged through year one honorably, generating a good deal of cash despite never being quite fit
I think he’s gone so it’s just haggling over the price, but everyone is missing the most important part of this: where does Victoria want to be? Don’t underestimate the importance of her career and happiness in this decision.
By most accounts she doesn’t want to move herself and the kids to another city where she doesn’t speak the language. However, I don’t think her star profile in L.A. is as great as she hoped it would be, and a Milan presence could get her & DB both some nice fashion endorsements.
The move in the first place had little to do with soccer, and the move back to Europe won’t be much more thought out.
I agree with the above posters that Beckham should go, but MLS should recoup enough to buy back 2-3 players good enough (3-5 million transfer fee) to be stars in MLS so that the DP talent is spread more evenly across the league. Perhaps AC Milan could loan out reserve players as part of the deal.
The MLS put themselves in a bad position with that out clause in Beckham’s contract. Milan knows that if MLS waits until next year they will get nothing for Beckham. MLS should let Beckham go, as it is never good to force a player to be somewhere they do not want to be, but they need to get as much money as they can for him. Raise the price, and see if Milan bites.
Let him go. But, raise to asking price to atleast 15 million pounds. If I were MLS, I’d do these things:
1. Fire the contract writer that wrote that clause in.
2. Demand Scheva or Ronnie in return, or a minimum of 5 reserve / non first-teamers to be loaned to the Galaxy for atleast a season.
3. Demand atleast 5% of revenue generated by jersey sales or other Beckham-related merchandise.
4. Laugh in the faces of the AC Milan representatives who proposed a 4 million pound transfer fee, and tell them not to come back until they’re ready to present a realistic offer. MLS should say that they’ve received a much larger offer from Manchester City and use that as a negotiating tactic.
Ted, not all of us thought that Beckham would stink up Milan….I don’t think anyone who consistently saw him play over the last year and had any common sense could have thought that. I saw him play often and he’s the most competitive pretty boy I’ve ever seen. I don’t think his run is near over, with England or Milan, let alone the MLS.
Bye Bye Beckam!
experience: don’t forget, not one of these stories actually quoted Becks or anyone close to him. So we don’t know what he wants or is thinking about this particular move. This alone may be enough to get Capello to call him in for the Spain game to tie Bobby Jones, and then hang up the three lions jersey. Who knows? Maybe he is loyal to the galaxy and they’ve told him privately ‘look, we can’t afford to build you the team you deserve, if you want to shake Milan down, get what you can’ maybe Brooklyn hates the weather in LA? Who the heck knows? All anyone is hearing is Milan talking, basically trying to bully a much smaller club into submission in the press. As someone said when the kaka deal went public, clubs like ac Milan don’t negotiate in the media, they get what they want privately and announce done deals, not speculative ones. This is why there was such a hullabaloo about Real’s very public bidding for CR last year, superclubs don’t announce their intentions ahead of time, they make purchases then talk about them. When’s the last time you heard Barca or ManU, or Liverpool, or Chelsea, or bayern speculating about purchase prices in the media for a deal that actually happened? Almost never. You get a press release. The fact that they are speculating like this leads me to believe one of three things: a: la wouldn’t accept Milan’s price, and Milan is feeling jilted. b: becks doesn’t want to stay in Milan, but is having a good time and wants to give Milan a face-saving chance. C: the deal is done, save a few minor obstacles.
Milan doesn’t negotiate in public. The price isn’t going up. They can’t be seen as giving ground to the Galaxy (this is why you negotiate in private first)
I have to admit, as a fan of MLS and American soccer, I feel somewhat betrayed. I had admired Beckham for his passion, his poise, and his loyalty. Just one month ago, he stated that he would be returning to LA, and that he came to LA to win trophies, to increase the popularity of soccer in America, and that is what he intends to do. Now it appears as that was just spin control to make his loan to Milan appear like nothing more than a move to keep fit.
The whole Beckham experiment will now appear as a disaster in the eyes of the skeptics. This only helps support the argument of Europeans, and Americans, that soccer will never be more than a second class sport in our country.
Beckham came here to help soccer take a step forward in America. The inference the world will make of his early departure will actually take soccer in America a step back.
Experience