It's official: Steven Gerrard to join L.A. Galaxy ... now let's ask some pressing questions
For about a decade, it was said that Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard, some of the finest products of England’s golden generation, couldn’t play in the same midfield for their national team. The attacking midfielders were too similar, too inclined to move into the same spaces. They got in each other’s way.
Their head-to-head battles between Gerrard’s Liverpool and Lampard’s Chelsea were invariably captivating, though, as the iron-willed and high-scoring midfielders matched their wits. Now, they will once again share a league.
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Gerrard will join the Los Angeles Galaxy in July, the club confirmed on Wednesday, a move that was speculated on ever since Gerrard announced he would finally be leaving Liverpool this summer. Lampard was supposed to be with expansion team New York City FC from the start of the season but will also join in July after his pseudo-quasi-non-loan to Manchester City was extended. (But that’s another can of worms that we’ll open with earnestness in some other post.)
The capture is an impressive one for the Galaxy, and the biggest since they landed David Beckham in 2007. The 34-year-old Gerrard, who will be 35 when he actually joins, is slated to earn $6 million annually for the 18-month duration of his Designated Player deal, according to ESPN FC and the Washington Post, only a shade less than what Beckham made.
That throws up a threesome of questions that beg answering:
1. Is he worth the money?
Gerrard, to state the very obvious, is not Beckham. You could argue that Gerrard was actually the more accomplished player, and that he meant more to his club that Beckham did to his. Goldenballs, on the other hand, had a mainstream appeal that always sort of eluded Stevie-G. That made Beckham immensely valuable to the Galaxy and the league, who brought the personification of Hollywood to Los Angeles when the club and the league badly needed the refracted rays of his shine.
Gerrard, while still capable as a player on many days, won’t move the mainstream needle the way Beckham did. Liverpool fans around the country might be more inclined to buy tickets to go see their local Major League Soccer team when the Galaxy come to town, but he might not sell that many more tickets at home. What’s more, the Galaxy were already very strong in central midfield.
2. How does this affect MLS's CBA negotiations?
The league’s collective bargaining agreement with its Players Union has expired. And MLS is pleading poverty, saying it is still losing money, although it won’t say whether it is including the highly profitable Soccer United Marketing or the recent flurry of $100 million-expansion fees in its accounting of those supposed losses.
Lampard, Gerrard and David Villa, another New York City FC recruit, are all said to be making the same kind of money. Yet the salary cap remains at $3.1 million and the minimum salary last season was just $36,500. These facts are going to become hard to reconcile for the league’s vast middle class, which would quite like to have its free agency and decent living wages.
3. At what point does MLS change its recruitment policy?
It seemed, for a time, that the league was finally beginning to shed its “retirement league” image. It had built credibility by bringing home U.S. national teamers in their prime like Clint Dempsey and Michael Bradley as well as promising young players from South America. This offseason has seen something of a backslide.
It’s hard to blame New York City FC for signing the players it did, when given the chance, considering its immense Manchester City-backed resources. The Galaxy, meanwhile, had to replace Landon Donovan. So fair enough. But on the whole, this undoes much of the progress made. If MLS wants to be a “destination league," as it claims, it will have to dump the 30-something has-beens at some point.
Leander Schaerlaeckens is a soccer columnist for Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter @LeanderAlphabet.
