David Beckham Loan Move To AC Milan

In what I see as a move with more finan­cial impact than on-field impact, AC Milan are court­ing another super­star whose best days are behind him, but who is still capa­ble of pack­ing a com­mer­cial punch. The lat­est move is to be a loan deal for LA Galaxy star David Beck­ham. Beckham’s sea­son is over in the US and with he and his equally famous wife becom­ing more and more involved in the fash­ion indus­try, a move to Milan would make sense for both sides.

Part of the move is moti­vated by foot­ball ambi­tion as Beck­ham has been told by Eng­land coach Fabio Capello that he must be play­ing reg­u­larly if he is to win his 108th cap against Spain in Feb­ru­ary. If Beck­ham does appear in that match, he will join Bobby Moore as England’s most capped out­field player.

Gabriele Mar­cotti has posted a great arti­cle on the poten­tial move and the killer quote comes from Adri­ano Gal­liani, AC Milan’s man­ag­ing direc­tor, who says: “Run­ning a foot­ball club isn’t just about putting 11 men on the pitch and win­ning games, it’s about cre­at­ing and sus­tain­ing excite­ment, fill­ing sta­di­ums, gen­er­at­ing spon­sor­ship, mer­chan­dis­ing and mar­ket­ing. It’s about hav­ing a bold idea.”

There is no doubt that Beckham’s pop­u­lar­ity remains high. While his soc­cer skills have often been ques­tioned (I per­son­ally rate him as a top player but not an all-time great in the vein of a Cruyff or Beck­en­bauer), there is no ques­tion­ing his skills as an ambas­sador for his sport. He’s largely steered away from off-field prob­lems and has always been polite, accom­mo­dat­ing and even hum­ble with fans and media alike. He cer­tainly does not give the appear­ance of hav­ing an inflated sense of self like many other top super­stars and that has cer­tainly helped his com­mer­cial appeal.

At 33, many will ques­tion just what he can add to the AC Milan squad but he is an expe­ri­enced Euro­pean player and could be used as a starter for UEFA Cup matches should AC Milan advance to the next phase. He showed flashes of his old form this past sea­son with the Galaxy but the team was lack­ing qual­ity in more than one area and again missed out on the playoffs.

Los Ange­les Galaxy boss Bruce Arena has been quoted in doubt­ing how the loan of Beck­ham to AC Milan will be ben­e­fi­cial for the league or the Galaxy. I see it as keep­ing Beckham’s sport­ing pro­file high and giv­ing MLS a slight boost in return. The per­cep­tion, at least in the US, might be that if a player from MLS can fit into a giant club like AC Milan than the over­all qual­ity of the league is higher than most are giv­ing it credit for. A bit of a stretch per­haps but that will cer­tainly be part of the think­ing behind this move.

(Note: The pho­to­shopped Beck­ham image in this arti­cle is taken from the mirror.co.uk)

Tagged as: ac milan, business of sport, David Beckham, la galaxy, loan deal