squidpants

David Beckham
Originally uploaded by Radio Ado.

so David Beckham is going to play soccer in the US. When I first heard rumors of this awhile ago I was pretty happy about it, as I am a big US soccer fan. However, the more I think about it, the more I think it's not so great. For one thing, he's old and a lot of folks think he's a has-been - he was a bench player at his most recent team. He's still good obviously, but if he plays poorly here it will be a big disappointment for everybody hyping him, and on the other hand, if he plays well, it might give Europeans another reason to say that soccer in the US is bad - this has been is kicking your butts.

And anyway, it's not like European players haven't come to the US to end their careers before. Pele was the example everybody cites, but Youri Djorkaeff, the former French star, was playing for New York until last year, and German star Lothar Matthaus was also in MLS, but no one really cared. The same thing happens to teams in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, they give older famous players tons of money to come over, and still no one cares about Saudi or UAE soccer. Granted, Beckham is better than those two examples, and he's way more famous, but I dunno. I am unconvinced.