Did The Galaxy Leave The Door Open For David Beckham To Leave Next Year? Yes, They Did

It looks like your David Beckham L.A. Galaxy jersey might become a throwback sometime soon. Amid his move on loan to AC Milan over the winter months, news comes that this upcoming season could be his last. Reports are that the contract he signed in 2007 secretly had an out clause after his third year, and it wasn’t the iron clad five years everyone had us believe it was. Uh-oh.

SI.com has learned from from multiple sources that Beckham’s contract allows him to walk away from the Galaxy after the ‘09 season, two years earlier than any previous reports had stated.

Hm… leave a perennially losing team like the Galaxy for sweeter Euros and dignity back in Europe? Nah, why would he do that?

Beckham does indeed have a five-year, $32.5 million contract with Major League Soccer… that runs through the end of 2011. That’s not news.

But Beckham can opt out of the last two years if he so desires, according to a previously undisclosed clause in his contract. That Beckham holds that option is an important distinction, one that has never been acknowledged publicly by MLS, the Galaxy or Beckham’s reps…

[B]ack in ‘07 nobody would have predicted that the Galaxy would be such a dysfunctional team. Until he joined the Galaxy, a Beckham team had never gone more than five-straight league games without a win in his storied 13-year European club career.

So what are the odds that one his time’s done in Milan and the MLS season’s about to start, Becks just pulls up a seat and plays the role of Man-Baby, pouting and refusing to go anywhere? Because from what we understand about the world, he could just do about six commercials in Japan to defray the costs of leaving the Galaxy. And as for the ability to buy an MLS team after his five year commitment… yeah, and? Burgeoning league under the Obama presidency or not, we figure that would be quite an albatross in about 10 years time.
Beckham could walk away from Galaxy after 2009 season [SI.com]
Image [SI.com]