‘Beckham Rule' May Be Best Fit for Just Beckham

The wild frenzy of hype that surrounded David Beckham's signing seems to have left Major League Soccer in a state of stunned inactivity.

Not much has happened since. Anyone thinking that the arrival of Beckham would set off a rush by MLS clubs to sign other world-class foreign players has been rapidly disabused of the notion. With each of the 13 clubs allowed to take on one Designated Player (like Beckham, this player doesn't count against the salary cap, the club can pay him whatever they want or can afford), there could have been 12 more stars heading to America.

So far, there has been just one more DP, and he's not foreign, and of questionable world-class status: The Red Bulls signed Claudio Reyna. Nor was this move a big surprise — it was widely assumed when Bruce Arena became coach of the team last July that his first move would be to pry Reyna loose from his English club Manchester City. Logical enough: The two go way back to when Reyna was the star of Arena's University of Virginia team in the early 1990s, and on to the U.S. national team, of which Arena made Reyna the captain.

But the Reyna signing, coming so soon after the Beckham frenzy, was a huge letdown. Even Arena came across as unusually low-key when he announced Reyna's arrival. In describing Reyna, the first adjective from Arena's lips was "reliable" — hardly a quality to engender excitement and certainly not what the DP concept should bring to MLS.

Reyna is a lot better than reliable, but he is not in any sense a glittering international star. He has been playing in Europe for more than 12 years, and his name means little to younger American fans, even though he grew up within shouting distance of the Red Bulls' stadium.

So we're still waiting for more activity on the DP front. MLS commissioner Don Garber professes to be unconcerned, even happy, with the torpor: "I'm pleased our teams are not rushing to make decisions without ensuring they're right ... thinking the answer is one player signing — our window doesn't close until the middle of April. We've got time."

The window Garber mentions is the time limit imposed by FIFA on international transfers. MLS can import players until April 15. But the current pause in DP activity raises a serious question: Has the DP rule already served its purpose? When it was passed by the MLS owners last November, it was dubbed the "Beckham rule" — even though, at that time, the mere thought of Beckham joining an MLS team was ridiculous.

But maybe the Beckham rule has turned out to be exactly that, a rule just for Beckham himself. Why not? Beckham is unique, he has already brought a vast amount of publicity and a great leap in credibility to MLS, something no other player could possibly have done. Not an easy act to follow, and maybe there are no other players who can follow it.

Names have been bandied about — pretty good names: Ronaldo, Figo, Zinedine Zidane, Edgar Davids — but none of them has been signed. The question becomes: Is the Beckham rule necessary any longer?

What purpose does it serve if the most obvious targets are (as the above list shows) all over 30, and reluctant to come anyway? MLS has plenty of melancholy experience with 30-plus stars who have come and gone without making any positive impression at all: think of Lothar Matthaeus, Hristo Stoitchkov, Walter Zenga, Andreas Herzog, Richard Gough, Anders Limpar, Branco, and Hugo Sanchez.

After the splurge of money on Beckham, would it not make sense for any further spending riots to be aimed at younger players, concentrating on the ones who can excite and entertain?

The league has had some success in this area, but not nearly enough. In its first year, MLS introduced the Bolivian Marco Etcheverry and the Salvadoran Mauricio Cienfuegos, neither well known and both from minor soccer countries. But they went on to become two of the finest players in league history. And, it needs emphasizing, two of the most entertaining players the league has seen.

Jaime Moreno, another Bolivian, joined MLS at age 22; Carlos Ruiz (from Guatemala) arrived at 23 — both were unheralded youngsters who are now two of the best, and most exciting, players in the league. In 2004, D.C. United brought in an unknown 29-year-old Argentine, Christian Gomez. He was voted last year's league MVP, a stylish, crafty midfielder capable of scoring wonderful individual goals — such as the gem he scored last week during D.C. United's 4–0 win over Olimpia of Honduras in the Concacaf Champions' Cup.

D.C. United, under the guidance of general manager Kevin Payne, deserves credit for seeking out players from areas where other MLS clubs seem reluctant to operate. One of those overlooked areas, incredibly, is Brazil. When D.C. recently announced the signing of forward Luciano Emilio, it emphasized a shameful, almost scandalous, MLS statistic: He became only the fourth Brazilian on a current MLS team.

The unearthing of such talent may well be hampered by the DP rule. When Arena took over the Red Bulls, he heaped praise on midfielder Amado Guevara, a Honduran signed as a 26-year-old in 2003 by former coach Bob Bradley. Guevara is certainly one of the more attractive players in the MLS, but — despite Arena's encomiums — he is no longer with the Red Bulls. A Byzantine transaction. Arena decided he needed to bring in two DPs, so he traded Guevara for a second DP slot. The first DP — in effect, replacing Guevara — is Reyna. The second DP has yet to materialize.

It was rumored to be the Ecuadoran goal scorer Agustin Delgado — certainly good marketing, given the area's huge Ecuadoran community. But Delgado is under a year's ban by the Ecuadoran soccer federation for his part in an onfield brawl. Last week, FIFA confirmed that this is a worldwide ban, ruling out his chances of signing with the Bulls.

In this case the DP rule has resulted in the departure from the Red Bulls of a highly skilled — but Honduran, and therefore not too promotable — player. His replacement, when one becomes available, will not involve any serious scouting by the Red Bulls because only already established stars fit the DP profile.

It would be decidedly unfortunate if the DP rule has the effect of worsening the already spotty record of MLS coaches when it comes to discovering exciting young talent.

pgardner@nysun.com