July 13 - Soccerball! Yeehaw! | On This Football Day

Pele, Franz Beckenbauer, Geoge Best and Johan Cruyff. Four of the best players the world has ever seen who all did their bit trying to bring the beauty of the beautiful game to the American folk. Y’all.

Despite their best efforts, the North American Soccer League (NASL) folded in 1985 with the yeehawing, flag waving, oil consuming yanks seemingly not bothered enough by the stars of the world playing out their dotage in the States.

Never one to shirk a challenge, David Beckham decided he could succeed were Pele et al had failed and on this day in 2007 Becks was officially unveiled as LA Galaxy’s new showpiece signing. He would be swapping the Bernabeu for the Home Depot Center but the massive amount of wonga involved probably helped him over that.

Typically for Beckham, the move caused quite a stir when it was announced in January 2007. He was at the time part of Fabio Capello’s Real Madrid squad but the club had decided not to offer him a new contract and Becks eyes were turned by the yankee dollar.

Beckham said he had rejected offers from “major British and European teams” to sign for the Galaxy with media reports claiming his five year contract with the American club was worth up to £128m with add ons and sponsorship deals.

Stern old Fabio Capello was not so impressed with the announcement of the deal however and told Becks he would never play for the Real first team again. The Italian manager had not reckoned on Beckham’s speciality prove-everyone-wrong mindset however and by the end of the season Becks had not only won his place back in the team, but had helped the club to win their first La Liga title for four years.

With the cheers of the Bernabeu crowd still ringing in his ears Becks touched down in LA with his arrival more like a Hollywood movie premiere than a footballer’s unveiling and in the year he has spent in with the club he has helped them to the top of the MLS Western Standing and even managed to better his memorable half-way line strike against Wimbledon for his new employers, scoring a 70 yarder against Kansas City Wizards.

Have a look at the goal below and pop back here tomorrow to banish those Monday blues with another tidbit from us.

This time last year, OTFD was talking about this.