Beckham to build \\\'global\\\' club in Miami

MIAMI, Feb 6 (AFP): David Beckham plans to bring football back to Miami, hoping his personal fame and fortune will help him build a new Major League Soccer team of truly global stature.
The former England and Manchester United star said Wednesday he already has major players calling him seeking to join a US team that may one day rival the European giants where he became a superstar.
"I wanted to create a team where we can start from scratch," Beckham told an outdoor press conference at a downtown Miami art museum, explaining his decision to bring the expanding league's 22nd soccer club to south Florida.
"I know there was a team here 10 years ago that unfortunately folded, but I know that Miami is ready for football again," he said. "I wanted to create a team that would be very personal to me."
"We're planning to bring a team that will be a global team," the 38-year-old said, arguing that in the past decade American soccer had made huge progress as both a sport and a business.
The former midfielder, who wore a slim-fitting gray suit and a tie despite the 82 degree Fahrenheit (28 C) weather, said one of his partners would be British pop music and television impresario Simon Fuller, who managed Beckham's wife Victoria when she sang with the Spice Girls.Beckham, who reportedly paid a cut price $25 million for the franchise, said his wife and family would join him in Miami.
He did not disclose when the team would be ready for action, but reports suggest it will be in 2016 or 2017.
"We want to create a football club that is a people's football club," he told a throng of media, as a helicopter buzzed overhead and a small plane whizzed past dragging a banner that read: "Beckham, don't trust Gimenez," referring to local Mayor Carlos Gimenez.