Cuauhtémoc Blanco: Better (and Cheaper) Than Beckham

The MLS has a not-so-subtle way of telling you who the best players they employ are. If you're a FOX Sports Net or Gol TV devotee, you'll tend to hear the term "designated player" thrown around every now and then, most likely in reference to some highly coveted foreign import coming over from a European league. The other, even less subtle way of telling you, is by doing a little research into what players fetch in terms of salary.

Most MLS athletes not set aside for "designated player" classification make around $12-17,000 a year. David Beckham's guaranteed salary for 2008, on the other hand, is 6.5 million dollars. While spending most of his time in La-La-land cavorting with Tom Cruise at parties and helping his wife choose outfits on Rodeo Drive, he's managed to score 5 goals and pass for 10 assists in 24 games since arriving in the summer of 2007. $1.3 million dollars a goal aside, Beckham's grand contribution to American soccer is measured more so in the amount of revenue he creates for the league, with his bubbly persona and his famous friends, the man is more of a celebrity than a footballer, more Stallone than Pelé in "Victory".

Beckham makes more than twice as much money as his nearest competition, Mexican striker Cuauhtémoc Blanco. The Chicago Fire forward came to the league at around the same time that Beckham did, with only the Latino community buzzing over his incorporation to the league (as well as most Chicago Fire fans in general). In theory, Los Angeles was making the safer bet. David Beckham was coming off a resurgent final season at Real Madrid, the world's most decorated soccer team, where he helped the club triumphantly win La Liga in the final weeks of the season and was being wooed by Real execs to delay his move to the USA. Blanco, on the other hand, had come off a disappointing championship series with his team, CF América, against eventual champs Pachuca, limping his way through his final season at the club, showing signs of slowing down after playing and starting in all 19 games before eventually coming up short.

A year since then, Blanco has netted 8 goals and passed for 13 assists in 33 games, been nominated for the MLS MVP award, scored the goal of the season for 2007, and - playing on the same team as Beckham for the first time ever - scored in the MLS All-Star Game and took home the Man of the Match award for that contest. Alexi Lalas, former US National Team defender - and the man responsible for bringing Beckham to LA - was fired in mid-August as the team floundered in fifth place of its conference (and in red finances), while Blanco's Chicago Fire was just two points from first place in their conference.

In today's MLS, both of them are able to coexist in a league most Americans at best don't care about or at worst don't know about, with Beckham serving as the unofficial "Ambassador of Soccer" to the casual fan who is more likely to recognize him as "that guy in the magazines" than as a footballer; and Blanco quietly serving as the main football attraction in the country, flicks and tricks aside, showcasing skills and speed uncommon for even the spriest 35 year old surrounded by 25 year old players.

And meanwhile, the MLS can debate internally how swarms of paparazzi taking pictures of Posh Spice daily will help the league, while Blanco helps it one quality performance at a time.