David Beckham is returning to the MLS, only not as a player - unless the owner wants him to.
Because he's the owner.
The New York Times reported Monday night that the British soccer star is set to announce with Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber on Wednesday that Beckham will become owner of an expansion team in Miami, according to sources.
The Miami team will begin play in 2016.
According to the Times, part of Beckham's contract when he came to play in the U.S. in 2007 stipulated that he would be granted rights to purchase a team for $25 million, which the Times added is far below market price.
Beckham announced his retirement from the sport in May of 2013 at age 38. His target for ownership was South Florida. The league did not make an announcement immediately because it requires new clubs to have a stadium plan in place, and Beckham had not yet secured one.
The Times reported that the upcoming announcement on Wednesday likely meant that the MLS believes a deal is close.
Beckham was an international brand on and off the field at the time of his announcement, the Times reported.
"David Beckham is soccer plus sex; those are the only two things that sell in the world, aren't they?" said Stefan Szymanski, a British co-author of the book "Soccernomics" and a professor of sports management at the University of Michigan, as reported by the Times.
"What Beckham sold was athleticism or soccer to straight men and sex to women and gay men," Szymanski said. "He did that rather spectacularly well. I'm guessing he's the prettiest player the game has ever had. He's the Marilyn Monroe of soccer. Everybody would want to be next to David Beckham."
Florida has housed MLS teams in the past. The Tampa Bay Mutiny were charter members of the league in 1996, and the Miami Fusion joined two years later.
Both team, however, folded by 2001.
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