Beckham to West Ham? Not Likely

"I'm coming there not to be a superstar. I'm coming there to be part of the team, to work hard and to hopefully win things. With me, it's about football. I'm coming there to make a difference. I'm coming there to play football ... I'm not saying me coming over to the States is going to make soccer the biggest sport in America. That would be difficult to achieve. Baseball, basketball, American football, they've been around. But I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't think I could make a difference."

In January 2007, David Beckham left Real Madrid to join the Los Angeles Galaxy of Major League Soccer. Since then, 2008 was his only full season with the club. In 2007, he did not play until July then was injured a few weeks later. In 2008, he played the full season, but the Galaxy did not make the playoffs.

In 2009, he spent the first nearly four months of the MLS season on loan at AC Milan in the hopes of impressing Fabio Capello with the World Cup just around the corner. After he returned, however, the Galaxy reached the MLS Cup Final. Beckham was crucial to the late season success, despite the outrage of fans at his staying at the San Siro for longer then the ten week original deal, unlike Landon Donovan who returned to the club after ten weeks at Bayern Munich.

2010 was to be a big year for Beckham. He hoped to make one last World Cup squad. For that, he returned to Milan, only to have his World Cup dreams shattered in a match against Chievo Verona when he ruptured his Achilles Tendon. He was ruled out of the World Cup and has yet to return to the Galaxy.

Now, his future with the Galaxy may be thrown into question once again. West Ham United are reportedly very interested in bringing Beckham back to the Premier League and his native England. However, comments from the club make it seem as if they would be using Beckham as a puppet rather than a key member of the squad.

The Hammers, who finished a miserable seventeenth in the Premier League last season, just five points above relegated Burnley, are hoping to move into London's new Olympic Stadium at the conclusion of the 2012 Olympic Summer Games. West Ham co-owner David Gold believes that Becks could make that a possibility.

“David Beckham could play a massive part, because of his roots, in helping West Ham win the Olympic Stadium,” said Gold. “And maybe he can still play for us in the autumn of his career.
 
“For him to join a club like us and help us bring another dream to fruition would be perfect for everyone. We want him aboard.”

This leads to the question of rather Beckham will honor his contract at the Galaxy or pack up and leave.

This is a much different situation for MLS commissioner Don Garber than with Galaxy forward and skipper Landon Donovan. Garber has made clear that anyone who comes knocking for Donovan, with recent reports showing interest primarily from Everton and Manchester City. It sounds as though even a club like City with the money to throw around will not suffice for Garber (not a bad thing for those of us who don't want Landon to get swallowed up by the Eastlands' Monster).

"Landon is in my view the greatest player of our generation and an incredibly valuable part of our history but also of our future," Garber said. "He proved in England last year on loan and he proved in South Africa that he's a world-class player and he's also proved that he loves our league and really has accepted the mantle of really being one of the leaders of the sport. It is my hope and my expectation that we have him for the rest of his career because I think the contributions that he makes are invaluable to our future success."

With Beckham, I do not see Garber as being able to tell him he cannot go anywhere while he is under contract, even if West Ham want to buy him.

However, I do not see this being a problem for anybody who wants to see Beckham stay and prove himself with the Galaxy. There are a few reasons for this.

First of all, just a simple question, this is David Beckham we are talking about. This is a guy who loves to play soccer and wants to play to win, not be someone's puppet. Is he really going to buy the garbage that West Ham are saying? I cannot even picture Beckham falling for something that pathetic.

Second, as I just mentioned, Beckham loves the game. He loves to win. He loves becoming a better player and proving himself. Anybody who is still bitter about David Beckham's loan spell with Milan last year and was angry when he hurt himself playing for Milan this year needs to just stop.

Beckham had a great 2008 playing for both the Galaxy and particularly for the English national team after Fabio Capello took over. Capello knew Beckham wanted to play in Los Angeles, but also reminded the midfielder they had something called loans in soccer. He warned Beckham that if he was not playing top flight European soccer during the MLS offseason, it was very unlikely that he would be playing in the 2010 World Cup.

Beckham used this as motivation to take the initiative and prove he deserved one last go at a World Cup. Beckham worked hard during the 2008 MLS season, after which he announced the Milan loan. The loan was supposed to last ten weeks, but Beckham's solid form made the Rossoneri reluctant to let him return to California. The club made a bid to buy the player which was refused. In the end, Beckham stayed with the club through the rest of the Serie A campaign, helping Milan to qualify for the Group Stage of the UEFA Champions' League.

He returned to the US in July and made his Galaxy return against the very same Milan club he had spent five months with. It was a rough welcome home as fans ripped him to pieces. He even got into a shouting match with one fan at halftime.

Despite all this, Beckham returned to the club, continued his excellent form, was respected within the club, and, probably most important, settled any issues there may have been with Landon Donovan, as the Galaxy won the Western Conference and fell to Real Salt Lake in penalties in MLS Cup 2009.

Then there was the second loan and Beckham's injury. The reaction over the next few days from Beckham was one of misery. He absolutely wanted to be at the World Cup, preferably playing. Over the course of the past two seasons, Capello really gained a lot of respect for Beckham and brought him to South Africa with the club anyways, as a reward for his hard work and loyalty to the English national team and to his career in general.

Look, anybody who thinks he is a jerk for leaving the Galaxy for those two loan spells is ridiculous. If you were a world class player playing in MLS and you were, for example, from Spain, and del Bosque tells you that if you are not in a top flight European league during the offseason then you do not go to the World Cup, what do you do? If you love the game you play and you love representing your country, you go!

Beckham is a class act. If you refer to the opening quote, that was true sincerity. He really wants to make an impact here. In a way, he already has. The Galaxy are better than they have been in a long time and the MLS Cup last season was a huge event. World class players are interested in coming to the league. Thierry Henry and Neroy Castillo are both on their way to the league with other players such as Raul and Ryan Giggs reportedly interested in a move in the future.

He has a desire to win and be successful and represent whatever shirt he is in in the best way possible. If Beckham did not want to be a member of the Galaxy, would he have allowed all the changes when things got bad? Would he have resolved his issues with Landon Donovan? Would he have given up the captain's armband?

I truly believe that David Beckham is here to stay in MLS and with the Los Angeles Galaxy. He wants to win and he wants to make an impact. When he returns from injury, expect a very motivated David Beckham to show up. I believe we may even see a contract renewal, unless he retires at the end of this contract. However, I believe that for Beckham to hang up the boots, he would either have to be unable to move or be offered the position of England manager, which is a possibility in the future.

For now, however, expect to be seeing a lot of David Beckham. He wants one last shot with England, at the 2012 Olympics. This time though, I think he will prepare by staying in MLS and leading the Galaxy to the podium in the near future.