David Beckham has a get-out clause in his five-year contract with Major League Soccer that would allow him to leave the L.A. Galaxy at the end of the 2009 season, writes Grant Wahl. Quoting “multiple sources,” he says that the revelation is “big news.”
“That Beckham holds that option is an important distinction, one that has never been acknowledged publicly by MLS, the Galaxy or Beckham’s reps — all of which refused to comment to SI.com regarding Beckham’s contract,” writes Wahl. So if Beckham, a player unaccustomed to playing on losing teams, has had enough of the struggling Californian club, he “can leave the team as a free agent after next season, no strings attached.”
With Beckham committed to returning next year after his upcoming loan spell at AC Milan, Wahl says this makes it “even more critical” that the Galaxy turns its poor form around in 2009. Tim Leiweke, the CEO of Galaxy owner Anschutz Entertainment Group, told Wahl that “next year is a really important year for us. A really important year.”
Although Leiweke did not mention Beckham’s get-out clause, what he said next ties in with its existence: “David Beckham has been a class act with us from Day One, and I’ve got no regrets of any kind on that commitment that we’ve made. But do I understand that that commitment is not going to work and will not be deemed a success if at the end of the day we have another year like the last two? I get it. And so does David.”