A statue of David Beckham has been unveiled outside the LA Galaxy’s home stadium.
He is the first player in MLS history to have a statue dedicated to him.
Beckham, 43, spent five years playing for the Galaxy and his arrival in Major League Soccer will go down as one of the most important moments in its history.
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He won the 2011 and 2012 MLS Cups with LA, as he was the first-ever Designated Player in league history and that ruling was put in place in 2007 to mark a new era of superstar names arriving in MLS.
Whether you appreciated his loan spells overseas and not playing on turf pitches or not, it is hard to deny Becks’ arrival had a big impact in the visibility of MLS across the U.S. and the world. Now, this statue is a little strange as Beckham now owns an MLS franchise in Miami, Inter Miami CF, which is due to arrive in 2020, but all in all everyone was very happy at the glitzy opening ceremony.
The statue was unveiled on Sunday ahead of LA’s first game of the 2019 MLS season, as they beat the Chicago Fire 2-1 thanks to Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s winner.
Take a look below at the statue, which compared to a few others of legendary players unveiled recently (ahem, Cristiano Ronaldo...) looks pretty decent.
And I can already hear you guys squabbling in the comments section as to why Beckham is the first to get a statue ahead of Landon Donovan and Robbie Keane. Beckham played in 98 regular season games for the Galaxy, scoring 18 goals, and compared to Donovan and Keane his role on the pitch was not as integral. But when it comes to his impact on everything else, he deserves this kind of recognition.
Surely LD and Keane will join Beckham in being immortalized shortly...
The first of its kind in Major League Soccer.#BeckhamStatue pic.twitter.com/oKTBUtVaUN
— LA Galaxy (@LAGalaxy) March 2, 2019
Trailblazer. Champion. Legend.#BeckhamStatue | #LAGalaxy pic.twitter.com/UMuVevGXzk
— LA Galaxy (@LAGalaxy) March 3, 2019
Forever in #LAGalaxy history.#BeckhamStatue | #Since96 pic.twitter.com/sHsIehk2yt
— LA Galaxy (@LAGalaxy) March 3, 2019
