Allegedly, and I can't stress enough how bad my sources are on this information, Zinedine Zidane will come out of retirement to play with David Beckham in Los Angeles. I heard this on Pardon the Interruption, where they spent more time bitching about soccer in the 70s than they did actually giving any details. This is not necessarily the lunacy it appears to be, it is possible Zidane would decide to conquer the New World, it's just that unlike global brand unto himself David Beckham, his potential reasons for doing so aren't obvious. Maybe like Jurgen Klinsmann he'd like to get his kids out of the media circus that would surround them in Europe, or his wife is suggesting LA (she's a Spanish actress who loves the ocean). It's possible he wants to play but won't face the indignity of the reserves or a lower division, but if Djibril Cisse and Frank Ribery leave l'OM this summer, they'd be tossing hookers with baguettes through Zizou's window to get him to come home to Marseille. (Despite being French, Zidane features prominently in the African football magazine I buy occasionally, because his Arab identity and Algerian heritage are so iconic.) Zidane is more than any other player the guy I'd want to see in MLS, because he is incredible to watch, and if the refs protected him from legbreakers, he could be like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in college basketball: so good it's not fair. Just watch some of the balls he put in front of Ribery last summer. He and Beckham are like the quarterbacks of a sport that doesn't let you use your hands. And maybe the Galaxy can play with three playmakers, if Becks goes back to being a winger and Landon Donovan a mezzapunta to Zidane's fantasista (and I'll go back to using Italian sporting terms to put on airs).
I thought that it would be impossible for Becks and Zizou to be reunited anyways, since every team was supposed to get one designated player (aka Beckham Rule, salary cap exempt player), but I see Red Bull NY traded for Toronto's exemption. They signed Juan Pablo Angel, a Colombian striker who was a star for River Plate in Buenos Aires and for Aston Villa in Birmingham (Roll Tide! Er, wait...no.) This is on top of signing "Captain America" Claudio Reyna, who was a solid holding midfielder for several top flight teams in England. This is cool, because it means MLS has become wealthy enough to change the flow of talent a bit. Early on MLS had a few players in the twilight of their careers or toiling away in obscurity in from other leagues that it pulled in, and they made a big difference. Then there was a wave of players from Europe looking for one more day in the sun who had nothing to contribute and all quit after a few weeks, while the top talent developed in MLS headed over to England and occasionally Holland as fast as possible. If the new rules mean there's another crop of older talent that can come in and offer some organization and style, and maybe keep the ball in play for more than three seconds, and the exodus of younger talent can be slowed down just a smidgeon, the combination of big names showing a flash of sexy football and American players sticking around a little longer may put enough of a face on a team to garner a little bit more media attention, and all three factors will reinforce each other. But no matter what Wilbon may have seen jotted down on a napkin at Billy Goat's or wherever PTI gets its information, I'll be shocked to see Zidane in a Galaxy shirt.
No comments:
Post a Comment