Posh Spice is moving where?

So yes, it's been a while since I've written (largely because I've been hard at work writing for the fast-growing, ever exciting Sportingo.com. If you're bored, go there and find my name in the Authors section. Some FINE work). I will succumb to all the emails and phone calls saying "What do you think about the Beckham thing???" and go ahead and write about it. Now, first I must preface that, as a Newcastle and Chicago Fire fan, I could not care any less, aside from the fact that the Fire will play Posh's husband a few times a year, and ticket prices potentially could go through the roof for those games, creating quite an eBay-tastic opportunity. But as a genuine football fan, and a supporter of MLS, this transaction means a great deal to me. Let me try and break down my thoughts.

First of all, I'll give a little description of how I see the MLS. I will begin that description now.

There are three types of football leagues in this world. Top-rung leagues, feeder leagues, and entertainment leagues. Top-rung leagues are ones such as the English Premiership, Italian Serie-A, the German Bundesliga, and the Spanish Primera. You could also possibly count the French Ligue in there as well. These are the leagues that the BEST players in the world migrate towards and play in, to prove to themselves and their contrymen that they are just that: truly the best. They're the most interesting leagues to watch because typically, more money is at stake in these games, the quality is exceedingly high, and thus, the drama is the greatest. A football fan will always be interested in these leagues.
Feeder leagues are the next rung on the ladder. The best example of a feeder league is the Dutch Eredivisie, and also probably the Portuguese Liga and the Scottish Premier League. If a player is successful in these leagues, that means they're probably worth a shot to play in a Top-rung league. It'll be tough, but that's where they want to be, to TRULY succeed. These leagues typically don't try to BE a top-rung league because the level of play is very high, and the football is very passionate and entertaining. They're an important part of the world game, and take pride in being a quality feeder league.
The entertainment leagues are all other leagues in the world, such as the Australian league, most Asian leagues, the Central American leagues and the like. These leagues will usually feed the feeder leagues, and VERY occasionally (such as in Jared Borgetti's case) feed into a Top-rung league. They serve as self-supporting leagues for their countries or geographical areas, but don't have a massive impact on the world game.
So that's the world of soccer leagues as I see it. I find the MLS to be CURRENTLY in the entertainment realm, with the long term goal of being one of the finest and most consistent feeder leagues in the world. We've had a number of players who have begun to be fed into both the feeder leagues AND the Top-rung leagues, which is why I think MLS has the potential for greatness (in a feeder league capacity). So if that's the goal, the MLS must work at developing talent at a YOUNG age so once these players really develop they're worth good amounts of capital to the other leagues. The MLS must have the mentality of development, and competition, with the end goal being seeing their kids hit it big overseas.

SO, What does all this mean in relation to David Beckham coming to the states? Well, I think it's quite obvious. If you know anything about David Beckham (which I admittedly don't know much) you'll know that his best years were somewhere around 1998-2000. He has since lost a lot of pace, which he never had much of to begin with, and the game has changed around him in many ways. He's not big or strong, he's not fast, but he's got the precision of a hawk, and is possibly the best dead-ball player the world has ever seen. In those instances, as we all saw even in England's pathetic display in the summer's World Cup, he can still be an effective player. But in the run of play, he's out of his league in the Top-rung.

All of this being said, however, David Beckham is STILL more dangerous and generally better than basically any player in the MLS today. He will instantly bring a new level of quality to the game that players, and kids watching, can and will aspire to meet. This is the most important impact of Beckham's move. I've always believed that the success of MLS will happen by it's impact with the young kids watching. Beckham's already got a football Academy in LA (his second academy - the first being in London) and he's got two (or is it three now) oddly-named children of his own. He cares a lot about kids and is very active in the youth community. So with his move to LA, having him in the flesh at his academy, raising expectations for football in this country, and helping to gain excitement around the sport, this could be a very very good thing for football in America.

So while this is all great and good, and I hail the MLS and Alexi Lallas of the Galexy to bring him over - you have to contrast that rosy description with the ultimate goal for the MLS - to EXPORT quality players to higher leagues. Now we're starting to see some of the restrictions being lifted on movement of players and some good deals being made to send quality American stars over to competitive leagues (well, pretty much everybody is going to Fulham, to be honest!). Strides were being taken, the initial confusing direction of the league and ownership and management rules were all beginning to be sorted out, once a certain amount of money and prestige began to flourish. And now, all of the sudden, we're pulling an NASL, straight out of 1974 move to pay an INSANE amount of money to bring over a start to play out the final five years of his career, and to serve as a stop-gap for his MOVIE career. It's all happening just at the moment that we were beginning to make a little sense as a potential FEEDER league. So this timing is quite confusing to me. Obviously the MLS couldn't control when Real Madrid was going to cut Beckham from their payroll. But this decisive action seemed very determined and planned.

So I'm hoping that this doesn't turn into another "Once in a Lifetime." And with the proper care and strategy, it won't. The BEST thing that can happen from this is that David brings a couple more influential players over, the US continues to export it's talent, and by the time Beckham retires in five years, the quality and awareness of the sport will have risen (hopefully somewhere above ice hockey and nascar) and we can then continue on our path to being a well respected and talked about feeder league. If that's the case, we'll have money coming in from other leagues, money coming in from international television broadcasts, and a great national team who can compete with anybody (much like the Dutch National team is ALWAYS expected to do well in the World Cup). The WORST that can happen from this is that old, declining players will see the easy money, exploit the league for everything it's worth, much as they did in the 70's, and drive away any true passion that young players ever saw in the sport to begin with. Once the league management cares more for the few players who they're paying exhorbitant amounts of money for than they do the quality of the league itself, then all is lost. And by the look of this initial contract, they have to be weary of this trend. But for the moment, I'll congratulate Mr. and Mrs. Beckham and their family, hope to see him in action some day as my Chicago Fire destroy them in the MLS finals, and continue rooting for Newcastle, while hoping to one day see an American or two wear the black and whites. (Did you think I wouldn't bring up the Toon in this article? HA!)