Wishing on a star
Just what could it possibly be that would cause David Beckham to pull up stakes in Madrid and move to Los Angeles to play for Major League Soccer’s Galaxy?
Beckham, 31, earns $11.3 million a year sitting on the bench for Real Madrid, and his contract runs out in June. As of Jan. 1, he has been free to talk to other clubs.
Real Madrid has offered Beckham a two-year contract extension that would keep him in Spain until 2009.
This week, however, the “Will he go or will he stay?” drama showed every sign of approaching an imminent conclusion. “A few months ago we presented an offer to extend his contract that reflected his importance as a football player and as a marketing image,” Predrag Mijatovic, Real Madrid’s sports director, told a Spanish radio station.
“He asked for time to think about it, but we are in a situation where we don’t have time. We have to decide now.
“Next week we will address the issue.”
If Real Madrid wants to trade Beckham to another European club, it must do so before Jan. 31, when FIFA’s international transfer window closes.
Simon Oliveira, Beckham’s spokesman, had said that Beckham wanted a couple of months to weigh his future. “There is a significant deal on the table from Real,” Oliveira told BBC Sports. “They are the only club we are genuinely talking to at the moment. David wants to take time over this decision. It will be the last significant deal of his football career.”
But Real Madrid has decided to fast-forward the decision. “We have a meeting in the next 48 hours,” Oliveira told the Associated Press on Wednesday. Chances are, if Beckham does not accept the contract extension, it will be withdrawn and he will be free to leave.
In the past, Beckham has said that only the world’s finest soccer clubs move in his orbit, and the Galaxy, despite its name, is not a stellar team by any means.
“At the end of my career, I want to be known as a player who has played at the top level, for the top teams,” Beckham told Britain’s ITV television network in May. “And they don’t come much bigger and better than Manchester United and Real Madrid.”
So would he come to MLS simply to add a few million dollars to his bank account?
Not very likely. In December 2005, Beckham’s net worth was reported by England’s FourFourTwo magazine to be $130 million.
So, no, it’s not the money. Although some rumors floating around the Home Depot Center on Wednesday suggested that some combination of MLS, AEG and Adidas was dangling a four-year, $36-million offer to Beckham, with Adidas then getting its name on the front of Galaxy jerseys as the club’s prime sponsor.
Galaxy President and General Manager Alexi Lalas has said that he would love to have Beckham on the team.
“There have been discussions between AEG and David Beckham’s representatives,” MLS spokesman Dan Courtemanche told the Associated Press on Wednesday.
“However, David Beckham has not signed a contract to play for the Los Angeles Galaxy at this time.”
The fact that the paparazzi still care enough to shadow a player who was dropped from England’s national team after the World Cup and who has started only five Spanish league games this season means something to Beckham and is a clue to whatever decision he ultimately will make.
Beckham wants to be relevant, but it’s not possible to be globally relevant -- in soccer terms at least -- in Los Angeles.
But if he can somehow morph from soccer star to movie star and if he and his wife, Victoria -- formerly singer Posh Spice of the Spice Girls -- can swap the European jet set for the Hollywood jet set, that might be enough to tip the scales.
Coming to the Galaxy, operated by entertainment giant AEG, offers that chance.
But can Beckham act?
Just the chance to move from the green field to the silver screen might entice Beckham to Hollywood, or at least its Carson suburb, for a season or two with the Galaxy while he learns to memorize lines for a camera.
Already, Victoria Beckham has been rumored in English tabloids to be house-hunting in Malibu.
As for Real Madrid, the team has had a lean time since Beckham joined it for more than $40 million in 2003. No trophies have been added, and club presidents and coaches have come and gone as the team’s fortunes have waned.
The era of the “Galacticos” now is at an end. Zinedine Zidane has retired. Luis Figo was traded to Inter Milan. Ronaldo is overweight, out of shape and, according to reports, is about to be shipped out the door.
Beckham still has some cachet, even though Fabio Capello, Real’s Italian coach, sees him playing only a limited role -- more a marketing figure than a soccer force.
Real Madrid is rebuilding with younger players. It has spent more than $130 million on new players in the last seven months, bringing in the likes of Argentina’s Gonzalo Higuain, 19, and Fernando Gago, 20, and Brazil’s Marcelo, 18. It recently has offered a reported $52 million for Manchester United’s Portuguese forward Cristiano Ronaldo, 21, and also is pursuing Olympique Marseille’s French winger Frank Ribbery, 23, as a direct successor to Beckham.
Meanwhile, David Robert Joseph Beckham sits and ponders. He turns 32 on May 2.
It still hurts him that his England career apparently is over. He played 94 games for his country and captained the national team for more than 50 of those matches.
“I want to carry on playing for the country and leading England out as much as possible and for as many games as possible,” he said before the World Cup.
His ambition was to match the more than 100 appearances made by England legends Bobby Charlton and Bobby Moore.
Before he makes a move, he will have to be certain in his own mind that there is no chance of ever again playing for his country -- and the European Championship is only 18 months away.
England will never call up a player from the Galaxy, but it might call up one from, say, Inter Milan, or any of a number of other European teams said to be interested in acquiring Beckham.
“The primary reason for any decision David makes will be a footballing one,” Oliveira said.
Meanwhile, AEG this week sold four-time MLS champion D.C. United for $33 million, providing the war chest that could perhaps be used to lure Beckham across the Atlantic.
