Ronaldinho to LA Galaxy?

By: Daryl | July 16th, 2010

RONALDINHO-MILAN1 I’m not fond of blogging about rumours. Mostly because it’s both the easiest and most dishonest way to attract readers. (Next time you see a Reds Linked With SUPERSTAR Striker headline, take your clicks elsewhere.) However… this particular rumour has my attention, with ESPN Soccernet quoting Real Salt Lake owner Dave Checketts as follows:

“I expect, by the way, Major League Soccer to make another announcement in the next couple of days about another very big world superstar coming to our league,” Checketts told radio station KALL 10 Sports.

“Not to our team, I don’t want to mislead anybody, but another one of our teams is going to make a major investment and that will be a big announcement in the next couple of days.

“I would imagine that this guy’s coming to L.A. and you’ll all recognise who he is.” When asked if the mystery man was Brazilian, he replied: “I think he might.”

This may just be me getting carried away, but it does seem there’s a decent chance Checketts is referring to Ronaldinho. Doesn’t there? Because Pele is too old, Pato is too young, Gilberto Silva is too dull and Denilson doesn’t deserve a second shot at DP-hood. I guess it could also be Ronaldo, which wouldn’t be a bad thing either.

I can hear the “MLS is a retirement league” cynicism already. Whatever you think of Major League Soccer and the direction it’s taking, LA Galaxy signing a proper big name Brazilian just a few days after Thierry Henry’s move to New York Red Bulls would be about the most attention grabbing thing MLS could do in terms of capitalizing on the sudden spike in popularity caused by the US national team’s World Cup performance.

Certainly Ronaldinho is well past his mid-noughties prime, but just because he wasn’t considered quite good enough for Brazil’s World Cup squad doesn’t mean he’s got nothing left to offer. Ronaldinho’s repertoire of tricks would instantly add something extra to the Major League Soccer, not least of which would be that instead of David Beckham being the only big draw (as he was in 2009) MLS could suddently boast the Beckham, Henry, Ronaldinho trifecta of talent.

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Category: MLS

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Phillipejn

hello
d woolard

im a big la galaxy fan, so please do not put beckham with those other names. hes a worthless piece of $h1t.
although this does sound promising…and im already hearing rumblings from my agent at the office.
Posted from United States

How quickly people forget that Beckham helped the Galaxy to the Title game last season....The Galaxy and the league are light years ahead of the pre-Beckham era. Without Beckham, there are no Ronaldinho rumors...
Snooky

there is no ronaldinho rumers!Im a huge ronaldinho fan i admire him he is my idol and As much as i would love for him to come to the mls he would never, he would go back to his country and play for corintos like ronaldo.
Kevin

Say what you want about the direction of the MLS, but I love being able to see superstars play over here in person. My alternative is to get on a plane and pay an astronomical price for a ticket on the other side of the Atlantic.

On the whole, I don't think past-their-prime superstars closing out their careers here affects the development of the league much if at all. It's only a single player, even if that single player happens to attract a lot more attention.

P.S. I suppose you prefer WPS Juan
Jeremy Brahm

The main difference with the DP in MLS versus the NASL days is that teams cannot bring in any player they want through a bidding war in the past. Let alone, the majority of players on the team and domestic, unlike the old NASL days.

Would I prefer players who are recognizable names? Yes, but I don't want people just collecting a paycheck. We may fault Beckham for the paycheck, but he got the Galaxy to the final last year with Donovan's help and only lost on penalty kicks. Yes he is a little over of the hill, but still serviceable.

MLS realizes that they are not going to spend the money to compete with the superpowers of Europe for talent, it does not make economic sense. If MLS picks some of the second tier players, who are not getting regular playing time in Europe I think that it helps the league a bit, just from a name recognition standpoint. Albeit with regular soccer fans, not general sports fans.
Francesco

I've always said since MLS put the DP rule in place that the one player that could come here and attract casual American fans to MLS is Ronaldinho. He is the player that can excite crowds with great plays and tricks that the casual fan wants to see. A casual fan may not appreciate a pinpoint Beckham cross, but Ronaldinho beating 3 players they'd like to see. And watching him at Milan last season, yes at times he can be very lazy, but when he wants to play he is the best player on the pitch.
Sebastian

I'm unclear how bringing in aging stars benefits the MLS. I think they thought signing Beckham would catapult the league to prominence domestically and maybe even have it be taken seriously internationally.* It didn't. So why would signing Ronaldinho and Thierry Henry change things? It's not going to turn the MLS into a world class league and it seems like it would damage player development, which is probably where the MLS should be investing its energies, unless the aging stars are substantially raising the level of play.

*Weirdly, the latter has maybe sort of happened. No one expected Beckham to be able to maintain an international career and he has.
IT Guy

im a big la galaxy fan, so please do not put beckham with those other names. hes a worthless piece of $h1t.

although this does sound promising...and im already hearing rumblings from my agent at the office.
Matt

Typical snobbery from Juan there on the MLS.
Daryl

Juan, why?

Surely it's a good thing for both American soccer and the sport in general that MLS is very much in business.
sandrahn

Not Ronaldo, he's busy playing with Corinthians (I'm Brazilian and watch the campeonato on Globo TV). Dinho's a good possibility.
Juan

joke of a league. i pray for the day the MLS goes out of business.