Beckham’s Miami team to kick off after 7 years of twists

NEW YORK » Used to bending free kicks for goals, David Beckham was not prepared for seven years of twists en route to his team’s Major League Soccer debut this weekend.

“This I always knew was going to be a challenge. I didn’t realize how big of a challenge it was going to be,” the former England captain said Wednesday. “When we announced seven years ago, I thought it would take one or two years and we’ll be playing in the league. We’ll have a stadium. We’ll have great players. But it took slightly longer than that.”

Inter Miami opens its first season on Sunday at Los Angeles FC, joining the league along with Nashville as MLS expands to 26 teams. After a match at D.C. United on March 7, Inter plays its home opener March 14 against the LA Galaxy — not in Miami but at an 18,000-capacity, $120 million venue and training complex built over about 10 months in Fort Lauderdale on the site of old Lockhart Stadium.

“There were moments where I looked and I thought this might not happen,” said Beckham, the team’s co-owner and president of soccer operations. “The biggest lesson is I’m more persistent than I thought I was and I’m more stubborn than my wife thinks I am.”

Now 44, Beckham won six Premier League titles and the 1999 Champions League while playing with Manchester United from 1992 to 2003, then added a La Liga championship while with Real Madrid. He joined MLS with the Galaxy from 2007-12, winning two titles and boosting the league’s profile as part of a deal that gave him the right to buy an expansion team at a discounted price of $25 million.

After detouring twice to AC Milan on loans during his time with the Galaxy, he finished his playing career with a Ligue 1 championship with Paris Saint-Germain in 2013.

A jet-setter married to a former Spice Girl, Beckham decided in 2013 on Miami as his preferred site for his team, and MLS made the announcement in February 2014. But the launch repeatedly was put off while the team was stymied in its search for a stadium site.

“I’m obviously not from Miami. I’m from East London,” Beckham said. “So me going to Miami, trying to buy a piece of land, talk to the politicians, wasn’t actually getting us anywhere funnily enough.”

Jorge and José Mas of the telecommunications company MasTec Inc. were added to the ownership group in December 2017, with Jorge becoming the managing owner.