Saturday 7 February 2009

LA Galaxy REJECT AC Milan Bid For David Beckham

It looks like LA Galaxy are going to play hard ball.

"We just received an offer," said Tim Leiweke, chief executive of Galaxy owners AEG. "It was rejected."

It’s reported the bid was for around £4.3m, whereas the American side want at least £9m, possibly as much as £16m.

"If David ultimately is an asset for this team, we want him back," Leiweke continued in the LA Times.

"If David has a hunger and a desire to come help us make the impact on the pitch that we wanted to make with him but haven't done yet, then he's an important member of this team. Our intention is to bring him back."

"Clearly, if David's in a position where he wants to finish the season in Milan, and Milan in turn compensates the Galaxy so that we can suffer no damages to our fans or to our team, then we'll take a look at it."

"But we have made it very clear to them that we expect David back here [on] March 9. They agree and understand we own the contract. They understand the only way we do this is if, when this is all said and done, the Galaxy benefits."


"If the Galaxy comes out better without David than with David, then we'll take a look at it."

The ball is now back in Milan's court. Vice-president Adriano Galliani will have to dig deep and show Galaxy the green in order to get the ball rolling again, but it will not be easy.

"We understand his [Beckham's] infatuation with playing with one of the world's most popular club teams right now, and we understand his trying to mentally get around the idea of coming back to play with a team that didn't make the play-offs in MLS last year," added Leiweke

"That said, David and us actually are talking. He has never forced our hand on anything. This is not a legal conversation and has never been a legal conversation. He does not have lawyers looking at the contract."

"David has made it very clear that if our decision is to bring him back here, he will return. Period."

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

"his infatuation with playing with one of the world's most popular club teams right now..."

wow. a bit condescending no? it sounds like the Galaxy are belittling his goals/aspirations and not really taking Becks all to seriously. as though they're toying with him. "we let you play with the big boys but now its time to come back inside..."

the man is not a child and he has played for huge clubs before but this statement makes it seem like he's being a spoilt brat. or maybe i'm just reading too much into it? lol..meh.

DVB said...

Very condesending.

It for me is quiet clear that the Galaxy are not thinking about David as a player nd only as a commercial property, ie a shirt and season ticket seller.

Without David they can no longer charge the highest ticket prices in the MLS.

This is turning into a very sad situation of the owner of the club is talking about David in this way.

Unknown said...

I think that he is totally in line. It is business. What would you do if you owned the contract? Would you sit back as say "I don't want to stand in the way of his hopes and dreams."?

I definitely think he should at Milan, but their initial offer is a joke. Look at the size of his contract with LA. The Galaxy have not really benefited from bringing him to LA at all. I know revenue and ticket sales are up, but they are worse now then they were when he showed up. The whole deal was a huge waste of time.

Beckham has $300+ million. He should contribute $5 or $!0 million to the cause. He has to stay. He is playing as if he has totally erased the last 2 wasted years with LA, like he went straight from Madrid to Milan. But, they are going to have to pay up. $7 million isn't enough.

Anonymous said...

They're playing hardball as they rightly should, but there's no doubt that he'll move to Milan.

I think the Galaxy have made a lot off David and gotten back more than they paid for his salary. Most of David's money came from the commercial side so they can't moan about his cut. I don't know what their current condition is but it's all on them on how they managed the money

Anonymous said...

I think from a general stand point this hasn't been handled well from any side, and I can only imagine what's happened behind closed doors which perhaps is why David has made public comments

on a side note, I thought you might be interested to know adidas are now advertising him as an ac Milan player vs galaxy. I got my issue of eurosport today and was found it quite perculiar that the galaxy who because of David usually have an entire 1-2 pages had not even a single add. Also in the advert for david's new cleats his picture was in Milan colors and the side note called him an ac Milan star. I think the whole world is biting it's tongue as he proves he can still play at a high level, and everyone is ready for this move

Anonymous said...

DVB great job with your site. I live in the U.S. and aren't huge soccer fans but I really adore David and Victoria. They aren't in the news that often so I always visit this site. plus I love youre fashion site.