Becks’ MLS ownership options may include LA

LOS ANGELES - Agence France-Presse

David Beckham says he’s not ready to retire just yet, but when he does Major League Soccer will be standing by to help him take up his option to buy into the league whose horizons he helped expand.

When he inked his ground-breaking five-year deal with the Los Angeles Galaxy in 2007, it included an agreement that when he was done playing he would have the right to exercise an option to become an owner. Reported to be around $25 million, that buy-in would be less than the current market rate.

The Montreal Impact paid $40 million in 2010 and the team began play this season.

“At that time, remember where Major League soccer was,” MLS commissioner Don Garber said in his state of the league summation, part of the build-up to the MLS Cup league title match on Dec. 1, where the Galaxy will be against the Houston Dynamo.

“There is a possibility for him to work with the league office to find ways to transfer that option into an opportunity in LA,” Garber said. “It’s way too premature to even talk about that or to even speculate what that would look like, but that opportunity does exist.”