David Beckham revealed what he found to be the biggest chance between European soccer and MLS but surprisingly it had nothing to do with the on-pitch action.
The Manchester United legend made the switch to MLS after signing for LA Galaxy in 2007, trading the Galacticos of Real Madrid to become the face of American soccer in Hollywood.
His move to California from Real Madrid sent shockwaves through global soccer in 2007 because of the underwhelming ability of the competition’s players and largely poor standard of facilities at the time.
However, it wasn’t the greatest adjustment seemingly had nothing to do with what was happening on the pitch but rather what was happening on the menu.
During an appearance on Hot Ones, Beckham revealed that the lack of team meals saw him resort to a measure that former boss Sir Alex Ferguson would be far from impressed with.
‘When you’re on the road, as a team you normally land on the Friday afternoon, you eat together in Friday night,’ he said, explaining the usual schedule for European teams. ‘Saturday you have breakfast, lunch and you play the game.
‘But when I first came here, we’d travel and we’d go out and we’d get per diem,’ he continued. ‘Literally as we got off the bus you’d get handed an envelope and I was like ‘what’s this?’ I’d open it and it would be cash.
‘Then the day of the game, I thought surely there’s going to be a pre-match meal and there wasn’t. So, we were in the middle of nowhere and the only thing that was there was the Cheesecake Factory.
‘I went out of the hotel, all the young kids had gone to McDonalds and they’d saved their per diem, I walked out and saw the Cheesecake Factory and that was my pre-match meal.’
‘Sir Alex Ferguson would have quaked in his boots at that,’ he added. Beckham played under Ferguson at Old Trafford before moving to the Spanish capital in 2003 and onto the States in 2007.
Yet Ferguson was not an advocate of the midfielder’s MLS move it was revealed in Beckham’s Netflix documentary last year.
The managerial legend said: ‘I couldn’t agree with it. I could not agree with it.’ Before going on to explain the blunt four word message he would have given Beckham at the time. ‘If he’d have asked my advice, I’d have said: “not in your life!”‘ He explained.
He won the MLS Cup twice with LA Galaxy, in 2011 and 2012, before leaving for AC Milan. The former England International left LA with 20 goals and 42 assists and put an impressive imprint on the MLS as a whole.
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Source: Los Angeles Times1
