Time for M.L.S. to Panic About Beckham?

The deadline for David Beckham’s suitors to reach an agreement is fast approaching. And Becks is still caught in the middle of this trans-Atlantic love triangle. The Los Angeles Galaxy still wants to keep him and A.C. Milan still wants to steal him.

The original deadline set by Major League Soccer has already come and gone, but the Galaxy have shown that they are still willing to negotiate a possible transfer — at least until March 9 when Beckham’s loan spell at Milan officially ends. All signs point to his leaving Los Angeles. So what does this mean for M.L.S. now that it can look back on the whole Beckham experiment?

People are ready to panic. They won’t quite march on the streets of L.A. just yet, but there is some indignation about Beckham’s willingness to drop his whole “soccer ambassador to the United States” gimmick. But if he really wants to leave, the Galaxy should let him. There are some subtle positives to take here.

First of all, it’s hard to blame him. At 33, he still has one last chance to play in a World Cup and it wasn’t going to happen for him in a Galaxy jersey. But if he does get picked to represent his country in South Africa in 2010, it will actually reflect quite well on his time in America. Those claims that he was all washed up when he came to the States in 2007 certainly will be proven wrong. Not only did he give M.L.S. two quality seasons, but he clearly stayed good enough to be prized by a top Serie A side and go to the World Cup.

And it shows that playing in M.L.S. did not leave Beckham a rusty shell of his former self. He played in a competitive league where he did not in fact start running opponents off the field like a professional among high-school players.

It is also worth noting that whether he leaves or not, M.L.S. has already banked the benefits of the Beckham bubble. It isn’t as if the hysteria around his arrival — along with the jerseys it sold — never happened because he’s gone. Attendance spiked wherever the Galaxy travelled and the spotlight had nover shone brighter on the league. Some of that attention is bound to stay, even if he goes.

When the league looks back on the Beckham years, it should see them as nothing short of the greatest promotion in its 14-year history. And if he left a little sooner than planned, so what? Beckham did M.L.S. a favor. It’s time to return it.

Let Beckham have his swansong on the game’s biggest stage.