David Beckham is finally coming to Toronto to play a competitive game and he says he’s happy to finally be making the trip.
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]“It’s a great city,” he said to media Tuesday. “The two times that I’ve actually been here I’ve enjoyed myself. I’m glad to be back.”
Although Beckham has faced the Reds in L.A., a combination of injury, concerns with the former playing surface at BMO Field and international duty, he has never played for three points in front of Toronto’s infamous fans. Yes, there was an all-star game in 2008, but Beckham wasn’t the villain that night. Until he finds himself walking towards the south-east corner of BMO Field, his MLS experience can’t really be complete.
On Tuesday Beckham gave credit to Toronto’s “great” fans and reiterated that he was happy that some fans were excited to watch him live. However, he reminded the throng of media – not all there to talk about the soccer, it must be said – he was in Toronto to do a job. And that job was to play midfield for the LA Galaxy.
Brushing aside questions about viral you-tube videos (yes, it was real, he curtly said of the Diet Pepsi ad) and of his growing family (“it’s exciting” was all that was offered up regarding the impending birth of his first daughter), it was made clear that he was mostly interested in talking about the task at hand.
“It’s important [that we win],” he said. “We played well [against DC United], but the way it ended was tough. We’ve moved on and are looking forward.”
As stated, you can’t really fault the Toronto fan for getting caught up in the hype. Actually, for some it might be a little off-putting that it’s taken this long for Beckham to play the Reds here. After all, TFC’s debut in MLS was arguably every bit as important as Beckham signing was in 2007.
Although both TFC and Beckham have occasionally failed to live up to their early hype – The Reds have yet to make the playoffs and Beckham has only averaged a little more than 13 games a season over the four years – both have also been incredibly important to the league.
Beckham has opened the eyes of the world’s biggest stars to the possibility of playing in MLS and Toronto now provides the business template that every new expansion team follows.
So maybe it's it’s about time the two stars of the MLS class of 2007 finally met, eh?