So we knew this was coming for a good long while: Becks was going to quit the Spain thing and put himself out to pasture in MLS, and specifically Los Angeles, home of the meaningless regular season game and underwear-free Britney Spears, respectively. (I can imagine Landycakes pulling him aside at the first practice to explain that “You don’t have to really try here, it’s sweet”) That wasn’t terribly shocking. The shocking part was the number they quoted on the deal: $250 million.

(!)

That’s a lot of dollars. A lot of dollars for MLS (certainly), for soccer (yup), and even for American sports (where your average backup center/ stiff in the NBA makes as much as the top strikers in Europe). Turns out that the number exists mostly for PR purposes; according to the folks at FoxSports.com (and specifically Jamie Trecker, the guy who reported that Jurgen Klinsmann would be the U.S. coach!), MLS is only on the hook for $400,000 per year, with AEG and adidas splitting the rest of the bill.

In terms of the actual footie, I think MLS is going to be surprised at how physical Becks is. MLS is not a terribly physical league, and I see Becks actually shoving some dudes around (and certainly getting tossed once or twice). That’s my prediction on January 11th.

Link:
Who’s flipping the Beckham bill?