Ronaldinho rejects LA Galaxy move

Ronaldinho still believes he can play at the top level in Europe so he will not be moving to LA. And with these words, Ronaldinho's representatives kill Alexi Lalas's dream of a modern day Cosmos franchise (original Spanish article).

It appears the Galaxy offered the Brazilian €32m of $50m-per-year, with half coming from salary and the other half from image rights. These numbers would have put him on par with Beckham. They also offered Barcelona €26m or $40m as a transfer fee.

Now the bigger question here is, if this report is correct, how could LA actually have signed Ronaldinho? They are already riding hard against the salary cap with three players taking up about half of the team's paycheck. Would the league have allowed LA to acquire another designated player slot even though it already has three players that fit the requirements for such slots (although only one actually is)?

As much fun as it would be to have Ronaldinho playing meaning matches on US soil, it would have been very disturbing if MLS let it happen in LA. If the league wants to be taken seriously, they need to apply the rules equally to all teams and not grant exceptions just because it would be really cool.

That being said, I do like the idea of teams going after stars still in their prime, so kudos to LA on that front.

MLS looking at top European clubs for 2008 All-Star match

Rumors have it that MLS has their eyes on four teams for the 2008 All-Star match in Toronto. Those clubs, in no particular order, are Liverpool, Bayern Munich, Barcelona and Real Madrid. Yes, the All-Star game is a bit of a joke based more on marketing then anything else, but if it has to be done (and it does), might as well get some top-level competition.

My favorite part of the article concerns the teams MLS has faced in recent years:

The MLS All-Star format typically pits the best of the North American league against a top European club. In the past three years, Chelsea and Fulham of the English Premier League and Celtic of the Scottish Premier League have appeared. Those recent participants pale in terms of quality and/or pedigree with any of the four now being considered.

Now my heart might not bleed Chelsea blue, but to say that they are not on the level with the four teams being considered for '08 is a little shy of the truth.

Anyway, as stated in an earlier post, I would guess Liverpool would be at the top of MLS's list, especially if the tails of George Gillett Jr. and a Montreal expansion team are true. However, I'd be willing to watch any of these four take on the best of North America.