David Beckham is nearing the halfway mark of his landmark contract with LA Galaxy and his five-year plan to develop soccer in the United States. But as he reaches the final years of his playing career his unprecedented commercial prowess is becoming ever more important, posing questions for Beckham and Major League Soccer as both look towards life without him playing.

In January 2007, six months after he had given up the captaincy of the England team and been dropped from the national squad by new coach Steve McClaren, David Beckham announced that he would be making a groundbreaking move from Real Madrid to the United States, to play in the country’s Major League Soccer (MLS).

It was a move that, in truth, caused as much bemusement as it did excitement. Beckham – the most famous footballer on the planet – would be paid a basic US$6.5 million a year to play for Los Angeles Galaxy, one of the league’s most prominent franchises. But Major League Soccer itself was still considered something of a footballing backwater, certainly compared to the prominent European and South American leagues.

With commercial agreements taken into account, including a percentage of Galaxy’s shirt sales, the move was expected to earn Beckham US$50 million per season over the course of his five-year contract. His stated mission, in collaboration with Major League Soccer and Galaxy owners AEG, was to not only spend five years playing in MLS but also promote the game of soccer in the United States.

Two years on from his unveiling as a Galaxy player, Beckham is nearly halfway through the original US$250 million contract, as good a point as any to assess the impact he has had on MLS and the impact MLS has had on his own commercial appeal.

Countless words have been written about Beckham’s commercial prowess over the last decade. He is the most famous footballer who has ever lived, the most commercially successful and certainly the richest. According to the renowned annual rich list published every year by The Sunday Times of London newspaper, Beckham and his wife Victoria are collectively worth UK£125 million. The figure is probably a conservative one, but is the simplest reflection of the commercial juggernaut that is the Beckham brand. As Simon Chadwick, a professor of sport business strategy and marketing at Coventry University in the United Kingdom, puts it: “If you look at who else is earning or is worth around that level in that rich list, you’re looking at [British entrepreneur] Sir Keith Mills for instance, with his air miles and now sports interests. It gives an indication of Beckham’s sporting power and his commercial lure that he’s up there alongside people like Sir Keith Mills.”

Analysis from respected French magazine France Football put Beckham’s 2008 earnings at US$42.7 million, of which just US$6.5 million was earned on the pitch with Galaxy. American publication Sports Illustrated, meanwhile, had a figure of US$45.2 million when it published its own rich list in July. According to its analysis the only sportsmen to earn more in 2008 were golfers Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. Whatever the truth, he has reached commercial peaks that every other soccer player on the planet can only dream of.

Yet it is equally clear that, at 34, Beckham is closer to the end of his playing career than the start. Although he has since earned a recall to the England squad – harbouring realistic hopes of being amongst manager Fabio Capello 23-man squad for next year’s World Cup – there is also no doubt that as a footballer he has passed his peak.

Critics will forever argue that Beckham’s move to Major League Soccer was made for commercial reasons rather than football ones. The deal, which involved not only LA Galaxy but also the MLS as an organisation, was designed to make Beckham the focal point for the growth of soccer in the United States over the five-year duration of his contract. Chadwick says: “I think it was made entirely for commercial reasons. He’s got his soccer school out in the States and has the link with AEG through the soccer schools. I think in those terms it was never about playing anyway, so it’s a little bit remiss of people to be critical of Beckham and what’s happened to him as a player in LA.”

AEG, owners of the Los Angeles Galaxy and several other MLS franchises at the time, planned the Beckham move for many months before it was finally signed and sealed. In November 2007, Major League Soccer effectively paved the way for his signing by relaxing its salary cap rules, introducing a ‘designated player’ clause. That allowed MLS teams to sign up to two players for fees outside the US$2.4 million salary cap. Predictably the rule later came to be known as the ‘Beckham rule’, the MLS being more than aware of the commercial impact his signing might have on the league. The then-president of LA Galaxy, Alexi Lalas, was tasked by AEG chief executive Tim Leiweke with putting together a new commercial blueprint for the Galaxy, including a revised business and marketing plan.

With some relish the new look of the team was unveiled in July 2007, timed to coincide with Beckham’s unveiling at the Galaxy’s Home Depot arena. “We wanted a classic and clean look that would stand the test of time, something that generations of players and fans would wear with pride on and off the field,” Lalas said of the new commercial look, developed with SME and kit manufacturer Adidas. If it sounded like grandiose marketing speak, that’s probably because it was – but it underlined the extent to which the franchise was prepared to remodel itself ahead of Beckham’s arrival.

For Adidas, Beckham’s presence made its LA Galaxy deal – previously just one of many standard kit-manufacturing agreements around the world – an instant cash cow. Its involvement in US soccer was, and remains, a deep one. It has been a long-term partner of Major League Soccer and Soccer United Marketing since 2004, supplying all MLS teams with kit. Antonio Zea, Adidas’ head of soccer in America, put it this way. Speaking in 2007, he said: “The worldwide demand for the new Galaxy jersey is a strong indicator of the relevance that MLS, its teams and athletes are building on a global scale.”