The prospect of former Real Madrid player David Beckham lining up against a new Barcelona-Miami franchise was a soccer marketing man’s dream — the most marketable man in the game against one of the biggest team brands, playing in the ‘capital of the Americas’.

A couple of months ago that scenario looked on the cards, with Beckham tied into a long-term deal with the L.A Galaxy and Barcelona’s Miami bid for a 2011 MLS expansion slot widely considered a ‘shoe in’.

Now, though, Barcelona’s bid is dead in the water  and Beckham, enjoying his football with Milan in Serie A, is doing his utmost to avoid having to return to the U.S.

MLS, Barcelona and Miami-based Bolivian businessman Marcelo Claure made a joint announcement that cited “adverse market conditions” as the reason behind the decision to halt their bid.

No specifics were mentioned although one has to wonder whether Barca and Claure were put off by MLS’s $40 million expansion fee. It takes a lot of money to set up a professional soccer operation and to hand over that amount of cash, as a membership fee, in the current economic climate, could be viewed as a deterrent.

If you read MLS Commissioner Don Garber, however – and it was not so long ago that he said the Miami bid was taking the expansion process to “the next level” – you have the impression it was the league that pulled the plug on the ambitious project.

“We are convinced Miami is a soccer market but we are not convinced it is an MLS market at this point and for the stability of the league we had to make sure we made a smart decision that didn’t come back to haunt us later,” he said.

Miami certainly is a natural home for soccer. The city has a large, young population of Latin Americans who grow up, whether here or in their initial homelands, on a diet of high quality South American football. Local viewing figures for international soccer are high — especially for a city without a large Mexican population.

Aside from Latin Americans, there are the immigrant populations from soccer-mad Haiti and Jamaica and on a lesser scale to the north of Miami, the newer arrivals from Eastern Europe — Russians, Poles and Romanians — who love the round ball game.

Along with that ethnic mix, there is a small but solid base of fans from the days when Miami did have an MLS team, the Fusion, who drew a reasonable average crowd of 11,000 before the league decided to contract and closed down them. There are even some who remember the days of the NASL teams in Fort Lauderdale and Miami.

What a fabulous cosmopolitan mix of supporters a successful Miami MLS team could have. It is, as Garber puts it ‘a soccer market’ but we won’t know if it is an MLS market until the league allows a team in the area.

There are, however, good reasons behind Garber’s caution and Linda Robertson in the Miami Herald highlights most of them here — never mind soccer, Miami is a tough market for baseball and the NBA to crack and the NFL’s Dolphins are the only franchise to have a truly broad and loyal fan base.

It is often said that the Spanish speaking soccer fans in South Florida are too happy watching Argentine, Brazilian or Colombian league action on television and don’t show much sign of interest in MLS.

But, the MLS, cannot be considered a Major League when the fourth biggest state in the country, with a population of over 18 million people, doesn’t have a team.

I should declare an interest here. I am a soccer fan and I live in South Florida and I really wanted to see an MLS team in this city. While I had reservations about the notion of ‘FC Barcelona-Miami’ (the importing of a ‘soccer brand’ grated and I thought such a name would devalue both Barca and Miami), I was excited about the prospect of know-how from a top European club being applied to a city that could, potentially, fall in love with a professional soccer team.

That isn’t going to happen now but out of the disappointment there might just be an interesting twist.

Miami already has a professional football team in Miami FC who play in the second tier United Soccer Leagues and they could get some badly needed support from the disappointment of MLS’s decision.

The club, which is backed by Traffic Sports, big players in South American soccer and sports marketing, were formed in 2006 but they have so far failed to build a major fan base. The USL is a weird league, featuring some clubs, such as Montreal, who enjoy MLS-level support and who, along with Puerto Rico, have actually enjoyed more success then MLS teams in CONCACAF’s Champions League.

They have teams in states where the MLS isn’t present, like North Carolina and Georgia and they are the league where the Seattle Sounders enjoyed so much success that MLS snapped them up.

Traffic Sports threatened recently to pull the plug on Miami FC unless it got at least 5,000 season ticket sales by this weekend. I am told they are serious about that threat but the end of the Barca bid might just have touched a nerve.

As one internet commenter put it: “I haven’t really supported Miami FC but if they do survive, I am prepared to start supporting that club regularly to spite MLS.”

While I am writing this post, an email arrives from the club stating that the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce has passed a motion supporting professional soccer in the city. Another recent message informs that at the weekend, the ‘Miami Ultras’, the fans of Miami FC are hosting a 24 hour ‘Soccer-thon’ to build support for the club.

There isn’t going to be Beckham v Barca in Miami but having spent my youth watching lower division football in England and my mid-twenties in small crowds watching Hungarian football, I know you can have a lot of enjoyment without the big-names and the big crowds.

As any coach will tell a player who has been left out of the team, the best response is to knuckle down and prove your worth. Miami now has to show it is worth a place in the game.

Come on you Blues…

PHOTO: A tattooed David Beckham is seen as he plays against Toronto FC in an MLS soccer match in Carson, California April 13, 2008. REUTERS/Danny Moloshok

David Beckham was roundly booed when he was booked for dissent in Seville on Wednesday but most of the local fans had their tongues firmly in their cheeks given there is a good deal of affection in Spain for the former Real Madrid midfielder.

His feat in equalling Bobby Moore’s England outfield appearance record of 108 is impressive to the Spanish, whose most-capped non-goalkeeper is Beckham’s former Real colleague Raul with 102, followed by Fernando Hierro on 89.

“Beckham is a real gentleman and definitely one of England’s all-time greats,” said Manuel Conde, 27, an unemployed Real fan from Cordoba.

“He always gives everything in the matches and he’s the complete player. It would have been better if he’d stayed in Madrid,” he added.

“Beckham is very handsome and he is playing well in Milan,” said a beaming Ana Sanchez Bernal, a 20-year-old sports science student from Seville and a striker on a local ladies’ soccer team.

Real-supporting student Fernando Pinelo had a more down-to-earth view of the Beckham phenomenon but was nonetheless full of praise.

“He’s not really a football player, more of a merchandising tool,” the 27-year-old said while sipping a beer in a bar near the Sanchez Pizjuan stadium after Spain’s 2-0 win.

“Maybe as a player he’s not one of the best anymore but I like him as a person,” he said. “He’s always very generous with the fans.”

My former colleague Simon Baskett, who covered Beckham during his four years at Real, once described him as Bobby Moore, Princess Diana and Paris Hilton all rolled into one.

Although he struggled with Spanish, never advancing much beyond his two favourite phrases “impresionante” and “muy bueno,” it seems he is one English visitor to Spain who is widely remembered with fondness.

To celebrate the launch of the new sports blog we're reviving a feature from View from the Bird's Nest and posting a picture of the day from the Reuters file.

Sports Pictures Editor Greg Bos has chosen the first pic, a shot of David Beckham from Spanish photographer Marcelo del Pozo. Over to Greg...

"The reason I like this picture is because of the mildly comical view of David Beckham, aged 32, leading the other England players with a big leg kick during a training session in Seville. He was no doubt aware of all the photographers present and kicked a little higher to get their attention. Like him or loathe him, Beckham is still a constant presence in English football as he closes in on Bobby Moore's record for most caps for an outfield player."

A great many people, most of whom never saw Bobby Moore play, have decided that it is an insult to his memory that David Beckham will equal his outfield record of 108 England caps if he plays against Spain on Wednesday.

But if Moore , who died in 1993, had been around today you can be sure he would have been the first to sincerely congratulate a fellow gentleman of the game. The Golden-locked hero of 1966 would have recognised much of himself in Goldenballs.

Beckham has been and continues to be a magnificent servant not only to England but to football as a whole.

He did not award himself 107 international caps, he was picked, by a succession of managers. When he was dropped by Steve McClaren in the former manager’s attempt to make a mark after his appointment, Beckham didn’t sulk, complain or sell his “inside story” to the tabloids.

He merely went away, trained hard and played to the best of his ability, until he was recalled. Many ageing superstars over the years have declined to warm the bench of their national side, their egos not allowing memories of their greatest days to be tainted by exposure of their fading talents.

Not Beckham. He has said time and time again that he will never “retire” from international football. He rightly points out that it is the ultimate sporting honour and that he will do anything and everything he can to help his country.

Listen to the likes of Aaron Lennon and Theo Walcott, young guns who have forced Beckham to spend most of his recent England matches on the sidelines.

They cannot say enough in praise of the way he has helped them settle and develop in the national team, all the while knowing that every improvement they show lessens the chance of him regaining a starting berth.

Remember Old Trafford in 2001 when he tore around in a frenzy in one of the all-time - yes all-time - great captain’s performances before applying the coup de grace with his last-gasp free kick to secure the draw against Greece that sent England through to the 2002 World Cup? That is called playing for your country.

He gives generously off the pitch too. Some might not like his celebrity lifestyle but not those touched by his work for UNICEF, not the thousands of youngsters who have been through his soccer schools and not the young fans, most not even born when he made his debut, who ensure Beckham’s name raises the loudest cheer when the teams are read out at Wembley.

True, he has had his lows. The 1998 red card, the broken toes, the penalties, the quarter-finals, and he will never captain England to glory in the World Cup.

But he can still dream of a cameo should they upset the odds in South Africa next year.

Amid the shame and pain, the beers and tears of England over the last 13 years, David Beckham has been a glorious gift to the nation and absolutely deserves to stand shoulder to shoulder with the man who hoisted the Jules Rimet Trophy 43 years ago.

For more blogs on other sports than soccer, check out http://blogs.reuters.com/sport/

David Beckham has surprised the many doubters among fans and pundits by scoring two goals in five starts for AC Milan and it looks increasingly likely he’ll be hanging around Serie A for a lot longer.

All in all, it’s turned into a very happy move for the former Manchester United and Real Madrid midfielder 

Despite having said soccer was the sole reason behind the deal, the 33-year-old, still one of the most marketable men in sport, has also managed to revamp brand Beckham by stripping down with his “posh” wife Victoria for the Emporio Armani underwear advertising campaign.

Now, Beckham has finally come out and said what had been looking increasingly obvious: that he wants to stay on at Milan once his two-month loan period is up.

A deal could end up costing Milan a lot of money but certainly for the player the attraction is obvious: keeping his international career alive long enough to play for England at the 2010 World Cup.

Does it make as much sense for Milan? Will his lawyers be able to negotiate an exit from LA that’s acceptable to all? Will this bizarre love triangle, in the words of Jeffrey Marcus at the New York Times, finally be straightened out? We’ll find out by March 9, when the original loan deal is due to expire…

PHOTO: AC Milan’s David Beckham gestures as he warms up in the snow before their friendly against Rangers in Glasgow, Feb. 4, 2009. REUTERS/David Moir

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, AC Milan have fallen in love with David Beckham and it seems the attraction is mutual.

 ”Our wish is that he continues with us,” coach Carlo Ancelotti said after Beckham had scored his first Milan goal in Sunday’s 4-1 win at Bologna. “Beckham knows what our wish is.”

There has been enough daylight in Beckham’s recent comments too to suggest he might be persuaded to try to extend his two-month loan deal from Los Angeles Galaxy. ”We’ll see,” was all he would say to Italian media on Sunday but note he now isn’t ruling it out completely.

Beckham staying on in Milan is a pleasing thought. The Englishman has looked perfectly at home in Serie A thus far and his continued presence would make the 2010 World Cup in South Africa a realistic target for the former captain.

As everyone now knows, Beckham is not a man to be written off lightly. He showed great character to come back from a bad experience at the 1998 World Cup and regain the respect of everyone in the English game. He also managed to resurrect his Real Madrid career when that looked to have reached a premature end and he has proved that his England recall was richly deserved.

On the other hand, he has always seemed to be a man of his word when it comes to football and it would be out of character to go back on an agreement to return to Galaxy on March 9.  

I wonder too if Beckham’s Milan experience might be subject to the law of diminishing returns.

I was in Madrid when Beckham arrived and I watched first hand as the eye-catching performances of the first few weeks gave way to too many displays that were little better than useless.

Then there’s the fact that Milan have a bad habit of holding on to players in their 30s. Might they not decide, a few months down the line, that Beckham is a luxury they could do without?

His wife is another variable and although she has a number of fashion shows to attend in Milan, Italy’s second city can never match the glitz of LA where the three children are at school.

It’ll be interesting to see what they all decide. Do Milan and Beckham settle down and make a real go of their relationship? Or can they just enjoy a consequence-free fling while it lasts? We’re running a poll on this at our main soccer website and please drop us a comment here.

PHOTOS: A combination of pictures showing Beckham reacting during AC Milan’s Serie A match against Bologna at the Dall’Ara stadium in Bologna, Jan. 25, 2009. REUTERS/Tony Gentile

David Beckham was in a chirpy mood after making his Serie A debut as a surprise starter in AC Milan’s 2-2 draw at AS Roma on Sunday.

“I thought it was great, I enjoyed it immensely,” the grinning England midfielder told the reporters stretching and scrambling to get their Dictaphones near him in the Stadio Olimpico’s Mixed Zone.

He had reason to be satisfied.

OK it was not spectacular - he did not score or set up any goals.

But, with the Brazilian trio of Kaka, Ronaldinho and Alexandre Pato in front of him, he was under orders from coach Carlo Ancelotti to hold a deep position and dutifully obeyed, competently carrying out his defensive chores.

He still managed to get forward enough to whip in some of his trademark crosses and have one decent shot on goal. The 33-year-old also lasted almost all of his first competitive game since October.

The Italians I chatted with in the press stand were impressed and he got decent reviews in Monday’s papers.

“(It was) nothing to show in a Pepsi ad, but he fought, crossed, shot and helped with humility,” wrote La Gazzetta dello Sport, giving his performance six out of 10. “For the first game, it’s enough.”

Milan fans seemed to have been won too over after giving him an unenthusiastic reception when he was presented to them at the San Siro before a 5-1 win over Udinese last month.

The travelling support did not have any welcome banners ready, but they treated him to warm applause when he went up to take a corner in the second half and again when he was substituted at the end.

Beckham’s loan move from LA Galaxy has been seen by many as little more than a publicity stunt.

But his debut showed that he has come to play football and that he has the tactical acumen to cope in a championship where fellow Britons such as Ian Rush have failed.

Not bad for his first 89 minutes here.

PHOTO: AC Milan’s Pato celebrates with David Beckham after scoring against AS Roma during their Serie A match at the Olympic stadium in Rome, Jan. 11, 2009. REUTERS/Tony Gentile

David Beckham’s first appearance for AC Milan was analysed in such detail by the Italian press that we know he made 38 touches of the ball.

He only played the first half of the friendly in Dubai against Hamburg and was steady rather than spectacular. An error in the defensive third has been highlighted by pundits but generally they thought his two crosses, two headers and two tackles showed promise.

“Tactically he is intelligent, he always plays for the team. He will be useful,” said coach Carlo Ancelotti.

A true test could come on Sunday at AS Roma when Milan return to Serie A action after a three-week midseason break.

Beckham may only be on the bench but at least that will give the Italian media chance to analyse their other obsession - the 33-year-old’s tattoos.

Newspapers want to know how much spare flesh he has that hasn’t been scribbled on after speculation he has had another tattoo.

Los Angeles Galaxy will hope it doesn’t say: ‘I love Milan’.

PHOTO:AC Milan’s David Beckham looks on during their friendly soccer match against Hamburg SV in Dubai, Jan. 6 REUTERS/Jumanah El-Heloueh

Reuters reporter Ben Klayman takes a look at the just finished Major League Soccer season, from a business perspective, and finds that the much-anticipated ‘Beckham bounce’ doesn’t seem to have happened. He writes:

Two years after David Beckham joined the league, Major League Soccer is facing many headwinds in addition to the declining economy as it attempts to establish itself as a major player on the sports landscape.

While Beckham’s signing in 2007 helped boost the league’s public awareness and put more fans in the seats, television ratings for the young league remain stagnant and some analysts said the MLS will never be more than a minor player behind football, baseball and basketball.

There are few teams making money yet out of the MLS (although the same could be said of most clubs in debt-ridden European leagues) but, as Ben notes, there are plenty of investors still wanting a piece of the action:

Enough people believe in the MLS that seven bidders hope to be one of the 2011 expansion teams, including groups with the owner of the National Football League’s Atlanta team, a partnership that includes the Barcelona soccer club and the owner of the National Hockey League team in Montreal.

Clearly those investor groups believe that there is money to be made out of soccer in the US market at some stage in the future.

Do they have real reason to be confident? Or is Michael Cramer, professor of sports management at New York University, right when he says: “I have real doubts Major League Soccer as we know it will make it in the next 20 to 25 years”?

Personally, I find the argument that the MLS will never be able to overtake the NFL, MLB or NBA in the popularity stakes to rather miss the point. Soccer has its niche in the market, the specialist television stations broadcast the games and the soccer specific stadiums of 20,000 capacity appear to be ideal for the clubs at this stage.

That the MLS is expanding in difficult economic times indicates things aren’t quite so glum as some soccer sceptics suggest. MLS isn’t about to re-make the mistakes of the NASL by expanding too quickly, with too many foreign players, but that means progress is less spectacular.

PHOTO: David Beckham smiles during his presentation as an LA Galaxy player in Carson, California, July 13, 2007. REUTERS/Toby Melville

The above question came up in Mark’s blog about Del Piero (see below) and it stuck in my mind after my colleague Andre Assier interviewed Juninho this week.

Here’s an extract from Andre’s piece, which you can read in full here:

Olympique Lyon’s dead ball specialist Juninho scored his 40th free kick goal for the club against Steaua Bucharest in a Champions League game on Wednesday to make his mark on the French side’s scoring records.

The strike in a 2-0 home win meant the Brazilian midfielder joined compatriot Sonny Anderson as the club’s all-time top scorer in European competition with 16 by netting his 94th goal in all competitions for the French champions.

 ”I knew the goalkeeper would try and anticipate on one side so I just shot and wrongfooted him,” the 33-year-old told Reuters in an interview.

So, to get back to the question in hand, is Juninho the best free kick taker out there, or is Mark right in plumping for Del Piero?

It’s interesting that from January, AC Milan will have three of the best dead ball specialists, at least by repute. David Beckham, Ronaldinho and Andrea Pirlo will all be lining up for Milan in the New Year, meaning a lot of pushing and shoving when free kicks are awarded, I’d expect.

If the field is limited to the players already mentioned, I’d go for Juninho, but then again, I bet there are loads of other gifted free kick takers out there who just don’t get the credit that goes to that Famous Five.

So who deserves to be on the list? And is there anyone better than Juninho? Let us know in the comments.

PHOTO: Olympique Lyon’s Juninho (L) celebrates after scoring against Steaua Bucharest during their Champions League soccer match at the Gerland stadium in Lyon, Nov. 5, 2008. REUTERS/Robert Pratta