In 2007 it was announced that David Beckham wouldn’t be signing a new contract with Real Madrid or in fact any of the top teams, he would be moving to Los Angeles Galaxy. A lot of football fans didn’t even know there was a football team in L.A. let alone a team out of Europe that could tempt England’s captain to join them.
Beckham always insisted he was doing this to promote the sport across the pond “I’m coming here not to be a superstar. I’m coming here to be part of the team, to work hard and to hopefully win things. With me, it’s about football. I’m coming here to make a difference.
I’m coming to play football … I’m not saying me coming over to the States is going to make soccer the biggest sport in America. That would be difficult to achieve. Baseball, basketball, American football, they’ve been around. But I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t think I could make a difference.”
There was that reason and there was also the astronomical income figures he would receive through his Galaxy contract and endorsements from all the American companies wanting in on brand Beckham.
Pele of course tried the same at the end of his career in 1974 when he joined New York Cosmos, coming out of semi-retirement despite being way past his best. He was credited with raising the awareness of the sport in America, something which Beckham obviously wanted to emulate in the modern era. When Beckham signed for the Galaxy, season ticket sales increased, as did merchandise sales and the world definitely stood up and started to take notice of the MLS.
That was 2007, 5 years ago, but Beckham isn’t the only player to have crossed the pond. In the past few seasons a host of players have moved to America, Thierry Henry, Juan Pablo Angel and Freddie Ljunberg all of whom were past their best for the Premiership but could now prolong their careers.
More recently Robbie Keane moved to the Galaxy to join Beckham, after question marks were raised as to whether he could still cut it in the Premiership after an unfruitful loan spell with West Ham. In the MLS off season he came back to England and joined Aston Villa on loan, a move that was questioned by supporters and the media alike. Keane scored 3 in 7 games and effectively earned Villa 4 points, arguably the difference between them and relegation. He had proven he could still deliver the goods, so why still ply his trade in the MLS, an arguably lower standard of football?
Sky Sports revealed on Tuesday that Everton had cashed in on Tim Cahill and sold him to the New York Red Bulls where he will join Thierry Henry and Juan Pablo Angel in attack. Cahill could quite easily have still cut it in the Premiership as he has been a constant threat to defences for the last 8 years, scoring 68 goals. Everton will not however have wanted to sell him to a rival club, and one look at his stats from last season, 3 goals in 41 appearances showed he wasn’t the potent threat he once was . With Everton already signing Steven Naismith from Rangers, they may have his replacement already lined up. For Cahill, it means he can continue playing for a few more years away from the punishing Premier League and potentially pro-long his career at club and International level for the Socceroos. It seems like it could be a win/win situation for all parties involved.
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