CHICAGO (Reuters) - David Beckham is being touted by some as the man who will elevate football to iconic status on the U.S. sports landscape, but sceptics wonder how the football star can succeed when even all-time great Pele failed.
Beckham has signed a five-year, $250 million (127 million pounds) deal to play from this summer with the Los Angeles Galaxy, one of 13 teams in the U.S. professional league, Major League Soccer.
He will be the biggest star to play the game in the United States since Brazil's Pele signed in 1975 to play in MLS's defunct predecessor.
Aficionados envision Beckham and other international stars turning millions of leisure players across the country into hard-core, TV-watching fans. Sceptics abound, however.
Posted by: SOT
No, nobody gives a rats ass about soccer in the US. Those that do are yuppie kids because they can't play football. Or poseur US/Euro scum.
Posted by: CJmajor27
Its very possible that Beckham could do what MLS expects him to do..elevate US soccer to the level it is in other countries. A lot will have to do with how well he gets on with his team. He's good but he's not a one man team. So far he shines where ever he goes and hopefully that would continue. If he can energize the fan base and raise the game's competitive level, other international stars might follow his lead. This helps MLS in the long run because it will be able to produce home grown player who will not repeat the disappointment of the last world cup. Brazilian superstar Ronaldinho has said he would like to play in the US sometime in the future when he decides to leave Barcelona FC. If Beckham can start to elevate the game to international division 1 level, it's definitely a win-win situation for MLS and US soccer as a whole. As far as why the great PELE never achieved much here, I'd say it was a different time and the beautiful game wasn't as popular or heavily exposed as it is today. Maybe for lack of onscreen exposure to the masses or the kind of coverage with viewership we've seen since the World Cup was hosted here back in 94. In today's world of 24 hours sports coverage on sports channels and magazines, Beckham might just do what the great Pele was unable to do.
Posted by: Delta784
If Pele couldn't do it, I doubt that David Beckham can.
Posted by: SinePari
He's only going to LA because his idiot wife former Spice girl THINKS she can act and sing. Oww, he nicked my shin...yellow card! Gay
Posted by: dcs2244
I doubt he can do it..."girls" professional leagues just don't seem to catch on here...
Now, if it were rugby we were talking about...
Really, though, if soccer was like hockey without the ice, it might catch on. But it isn't: "OUCH! Ref, he head-butted my chest and said bad things about my mommy..."
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