The Designated Player Rule, often referred to as the Beckham Rule, allows MLS teams to sign up to three players that would be considered outside its salary cap, either by offering the player higher wages or by paying a high transfer fee for the player. The 32-year-old Beckham left Los Blancos after conquering La Liga and signed a five-year contract with the Los Angeles Galaxy with an annual salary of $6.5 million. In addition, Beckham was given the option to buy an MLS expansion franchise in any market except New York City, which he would later use in February 2014 just months after ending his professional career at Paris Saint-Germain, and buy an MLS expansion team for $25 million – Inter Miami. After coming off the bench in a 1-0 loss vs DC United – his MLS debut – Beckham provided two assists in a 5-4 defeat to New York Red Bulls, and in total, he’d go on to score 18 goals and 32 assists in 98 games for the Galaxy, and his arrival drew plenty of eyeballs to the young league and a tidal wave of worldwide stars such as Wayne Rooney, Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard moving to the States. https://www.stlcitysc.com/news/soccer-101-designated-players
SOCCER 101: Introduction to MLS St. Louis CITY SC will begin its inaugural Major League Soccer season in 2023. The club joins Austin FC (2021) and Charlotte FC (2022) as the league’s latest expansion teams. https://www.stlcitysc.com/news/soccer-101-introduction-to-mls
SOCCER 101: MLS All-Star Game It has been 26 years since Major League Soccer became the United States’ premier soccer league. Still, there are plenty of elements from MLS’ inaugural campaign that have been, for lack of a better word, Europeanized. They no longer use a countdown clock – they count up from zero minutes to 90 like every other league in soccer. Games that end in a tie are now settled in a penalty shootout from the standard 12-yard spot, but when MLS kicked off in 1996, the players had 35 yards to dribble down the pitch and beat the goalkeeper – this method was abandoned in the weeks before the MLS Cup and on the cusp of a new century. However, there is one aspect of MLS that remains uniquely American: the MLS All-Star Game. https://www.stlcitysc.com/news/soccer-101-mls-all-star-game
MLS announces key offseason dates Nov 11: St Louis picks 5 players overall in expansion draft Nov 14: Deadline for clubs to exercise options Nov 16: free agency opens Nov 17 & 22: re-entry process for players ineligible for free agency Dec 21: College draft (STL picks 1st)