When Ronaldo went down last week, the flags went up about him joining MLS. What other league would wait for an out of shape phenom to get fit after total reconstructive knee surgery and pay him while doing so? Oh man… the room’s spinning… we’re getting deja vu…

One wonders if he will ever be able to play again. And if so, would any top European team take a risk on a 32-year-old striker with a swelling gut and bum knees?

Why don’t you ask the guy who signed David Beckham, a man whose knees grind more than dunk teenagers.

“If he says, ‘I’m coming to the end of my career and I wan to finish it out in the United States,’ ” said Alexi Lalas, the Galaxy’s president, who clearly pulled off the biggest DP coup by bringing Beckham to M.L.S. “that’s a red flag.”

” ‘My wife likes the weather’ or ‘my wife likes the shopping,’ that’s another red flag.”

OK, so enough about Posh Spice… seriously, there must be some Beckham Exemption to these rules for stars because Becks just went 3-for-3 on that list. But how many red flags does Ronaldo wave? As much as we’d like to see the former Fenomeno play here, the main play for MLS should be trying to keep superstars like Jozy Altidore from going overseas. A league focused on washed-up, overpaid stars is likely to resemble park rec league-some guys who know what they’re doing but can’t because they’re hurt; and a lot of guys who think they know what they’re doing because they’re young and running circles around the gimpy old timers.

Finding a New Big Name for M.L.S. [NY Times]
Image [Goal.com]