The Los Angeles Galaxy signed defender Alexi Lalas as a Discovery Player for the upcoming Football Confederation Champions Cup and 2001 MLS regular season. ôAnytime you can add a player who has played in two World Cups and has overseas experience, it is a huge plus for your team,ö said Sigi Schmid, Galaxy head coach and vice-president of soccer operations. ôAlexi’s soccer abilities, personality and leadership qualities are things that will help the Galaxy through the tournament and this coming season.ö Lalas, 30, retired from MLS on Oct. 9, 1999, to pursue his interests in music and television broadcasting. Lalas spent his last season with Kansas City playing in 30 games and winning the team’s Defensive Player of the Year award. ôThis is obviously a tremendous opportunity and I am thrilled to be associated with a team that has the potential to do great things, both domestically and internationally,ö said Lalas. ôFor me personally, this is a challenge to get back to the level of not only where I was, but also to improve my game.ö Lalas appeared in 110 MLS games over four seasons with the New England Revolution (1996-97), NY/NJ MetroStars (1998) and the Wizards (1999), scoring nine goals and adding five assists for 23 points. He is the only player to be on the winning side of every All-Star Game in which he participated (1996 and 1997 with the Eastern Conference, 1998 with the MLS USA side and 1999 with the Western Conference). ôEach new team I have played with in MLS I have felt had the potential for a championship and most of those teams even struggled to make the playoffs,ö said Lalas. ôSo to reverse the trend, let me say for the record, I feel the Los Angeles Galaxy is the worst collection of soccer players I have ever had the pleasure of playing with and if we win one game this year it will require divine intervention.ö A native of Detroit, Michigan, Lalas had a successful career with the United States national team with whom he has appeared in 98 matches, scoring nine goals and adding 11 assists (29 points). He was one of five players to play every minute of every game in the 1994 World Cup, was a member of the 1998 World Cup team and played for the U.S. in the 1992 and 1996 Olympics. Perhaps the biggest claim to fame for the 6-3, 195-pound defender is that he was the first American ever to play in Italy’s Serie A, with Padova (1994-96). Before going pro Lalas won the 1991 Hermann Trophy and Missouri Athletic Club Award as a senior at Rutgers University. Later, he received the 1995 U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year Award and was recently a finalist for the Honda Player of the Decade award. ôAs difficult as it was to explain why I left the game after the 1999 season, it is equally as difficult to explain why I am returning,ö said Lalas. ôAll I can say is that it is a personal decision that comes from the heart. I love playing soccer and realize that I have a finite amount of time to do that professionally.ö