David Beckham is a public relation wiz: the former England captain and Real Madrid player has always had a penchant for opening his mouth at the right time just as the speculation swirling about him starts to bubble over. But now is not the time; there are still seven weeks before MLS’s January transfer market opens. In April, Beckham laid the first seeds of the current speculation linking him to MLS: “I’ve one year left at Real, and maybe two more after that, but things can change in football and the American league does interest me. I want to be part of a country that is passionate about sport. I’ve got my academy in LA, which is important to me because that is my life after the game.” He hasn’t said anything since, but now that he finds himself a bench-warmer at Real Madrid with no future in Steve McClaren’s England squad, Beckham’s put his future on hold, keeping his mouth shut about where his future lies. Real wants to retain him almost purely for marketing purposes for one, maybe two more years, but Beckham may have bigger things in mind. In the United States he would also be an undoubted marketing success-possibly even more so than in Europe because so many global advertisers are based here. By crossing over earlier than expected, Beckham could also recoup even more money from MLS than he’s worth, provided the league gets to share in his image rights (which it will surely try to do). The Los Angeles Galaxy, presumably his MLS team of choice, is beaming at the possibility: “There are thousands of clubs out there that would love to have a player of [Beckham’s] caliber and the Los Angeles Galaxy is certainly one of them,” club president Alexi Lalas said.