Question for EU soccer/football fans

[Intense]

What do you think of LA signing Beckham?

A friend of mine, from England, sees it as the end of his career.

[Parshath]

What do you think of LA signing Beckham?

A friend of mine, from England, sees it as the end of his career.

Haven't been into football for a long time now, but I would agree. All of the exposure for Football players is in the English Premiership, or at the very least in European leagues (Spanish, Italian, French).

I don't see him playing for England again, or atleast not as a starting player regularly as he was. So I'd agree really, end of his career it would seem...

[Intense]

I was reading this morning that him not being able to start for England was because they choose younger players.

A return to England never seemed likely. The Premiership's four top teams -- Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool -- have emphasized youth in their transfer dealings.

Im not very well versed in EU soccer, but I thought this ordeal is pretty interesting, considering its here in LA. I personally dont see it doing much for US soccer though.

[mikazuki]

he was never good anyway, his success at man utd was due to the rest of the team working well, also right wing is often an easy position to play because you get a lot of opportunity to run into the corner and cross because even playing 4-4-2 the defenders will usually let you run that way.

when he went to real madrid his career was already over, his transfer fee would never cover how much a top class player + merchandising was worth, although real madrid probably made a lot of their money back on beckham shirts rather than his actual match effect.

to give you an idea of how american soccer pros rate compared to european/south americans/some africans, onyewu plays for newcastle who have been struggling at times in the last few seasons, bocanegra and mcbride play for fulham who finished 12th last season, convey and mahnemann play for reading who only recently entered the premiership.
these are all US international first team players.

for beckham to move to the US pretty much shows that he's too old to be playing in any of the major EU leagues anymore. obviously US 'soccer' has been improving but it roughly compares to japanese baseball^^;

technically all the strongest teams are in spain, italy (aside from the current problems with crowd control), england, france, germany and holland. a lot of the really great players that come out of river plate and boca juniors (argentina) end up in spain/italy and the same is true of various brazilians.
lately (and since the era of george weah) signings from ghana and nigeria have also become quite popular - though the quality of the players really varies.

looking at world cup performance, most of the players from teams that reached the quarter finals play for EU clubs, ie:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazil_nat ... rent_squad
just try to ignore that teams object being to let ronaldo break the scoring record rather than winning the cup >.>

[Exoduso]

lol, I'm still not going to watch him play. The Galaxy are a bunch of fucking pussies that have no idea how to make a good pass. Soccer here is still very much underrated, which sucks because I love it. (only I like the kind that they have in England/Italy/Greece, where fans actually have songs...)

I went to a couple of their games last year and the year before that, and besides the amazing stadium everything else sucks. That, and the fact people here refuse to actually CHEER in Soccer, but rather pretain to it as some kind of 2nd rate Baseball show, where all you do is sit around and eat your hot dog and popcorn while you wait for it to be over. (oh yeah, and chanting the awesome american "DE-FENSE! clap clap clap".)

It is the end of his career, but hell... look at how much money he makes lol. He was done before he chose to move to the Galaxy, at least now he'll make some money in Hollywood (and the 250mil that he's getting from the Galaxy.)

[Plow]

I hope my career ends with a $250mil contract.

[Shuemue]

Beckham's career was over once he'd been fucking abysmal in the 2006 world cup. That was his last chance at proving he was a world class player. He should never have been England captain, he should never have got together with Victoria, she ruined his career. The moment he got ideas above his station he started to decline. I'm an Arsenal fan, and I'm entirely convinced he's not good enough to get into the current starting eleven.

Basically it's a good move for the American side assuming they'll make money back in terms of merchandising, increased profile and revenue. In footballing terms? He'll probably tear it up. He's still a good player, just past his best.

[mikazuki]

yeah but if beckham was useless in 06, why can't rooney be kicked out of the england squad too D:
and fsck sven for not playing theo walcott instead, or at least just leaving crouch on for every match.
what the hell is up with having robinson in goal too?! he's obviously useless, there must be someone better who could take his place.

henry really sucked in the world cup shuemue, he's done okay at arsenal this season but against what was it, switzerland, south korea, some other team? france had crappy results. zidane did a lot more than him and he's what, 10yrs older? obviously zidane kinda lost france that one match like rooney did with england, but if he hadn't done that italy weren't looking so hot...

[Tajin]

I hope my career ends with a $250mil contract.

Yeah, this wins.

my opinion? He's one smart mother fucker

[killerx]

i wish i could make any where around that amount of cash

[Alvinho]

Like Mikazuki said, he's too old/tired to play in a competitive league, so he moves to the US so he can keep playing, but at a lower level, technically speaking. He can probably keep up with/outshine players in the MLS, so it was a good move to conserve his image, and make some more money.

[Artful Dodger]

Beckham's career was over once he'd been fucking abysmal in the 2006 world cup. That was his last chance at proving he was a world class player. He should never have been England captain, he should never have got together with Victoria, she ruined his career. The moment he got ideas above his station he started to decline. I'm an Arsenal fan, and I'm entirely convinced he's not good enough to get into the current starting eleven.

Basically it's a good move for the American side assuming they'll make money back in terms of merchandising, increased profile and revenue. In footballing terms? He'll probably tear it up. He's still a good player, just past his best.

and its Ar-se-nal... :D Hleb is pretty solid. Not just beckham at the world cup, the rest of the midfield excluding gerrard was trash. On a somewhat side note, it would be nice to see north american clubs play south american clubs in some kind of competition, like a champions league(travel would probably suck)

[Alvinho]

The Copa Toyota Libertadores pretty much covers that already, except club teams from countries in the CONCACAF don't participate, with the exception of Mexico (so basically it's South America and Mexico, lulz). Personally, I don't see how any other club team from the region (USA, Jamaica, etc.) would contribute to the already very competitive competition in a positive manner.

Edit: What it'll look like this year, according to Wiki:

The 2007 edition will have the competitors distributed this way:

The previous year's champion (Internacional)
5 from Argentina
5 from Brazil
3 from Bolivia
3 from Chile
3 from Colombia
3 from Ecuador
3 from Mexico
3 from Paraguay
3 from Peru
3 from Uruguay
3 from Venezuela

The lowest-ranked team from each country, plus the second lowest-ranked team from the nation of the previous year's champion, will enter the preliminary round, with the winners joining the other 26 teams in the main draw.