No wonder this man is smiling

LONDON (AP) -- David Beckham earned nearly $16.5 million from personal sponsorship deals during his first full season with the Galaxy.

The England midfielder's latest accounts show that his marketability was unaffected by his move from Real Madrid to the United States, where soccer is less popular.

That's according to Brian Boswell, coach of the Rolling Hills Estates-based Women's Professional Soccer League club Ajax America (for years now one of the top women's teams in the nation and a WPSL finalist again last year) and a sometime contributor to this blog.

The revelations were contained in what is essentially a begging letter circulating via e-mail that seeks to ensure the continued existence of Ajax.

Eurosnobs and assorted critics (like this one) often wish MLS would open its wallet a little more to attract better players and improve the quality of play.

Well, a fiscally conservative approach has its benefits as this story below out of Europe today confirms. Put this one in the careful what you wish for department.

Inter Milan unveiled their 2009-2010 season kit that celebrates the centenary of the club's first league title at an invitation-only flashy production Thursday night at Nike Sportswear at The Montalbán in Hollywood.

Photos by Susan Goldman courtesy of Nike

Dejean Stankovic, left, waves to the crowd while Alessandro Mancini, Thiago Motta, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Francesco Toldo look on.

Briefly:

*U.S international Jozy Altidore will sign autographs and take pictures with fans from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday at the adidas Sports Performance store on the Third Street Promenade. The address is 1231 Third Street Promenade. There's adidas product giveaways, too.

*Pasadena City College product Yura Movsisyan spoke publicly for the first time Wednesday about his pending move from Real Salt Lake to a club in Denmark.

If approved, financed and built it will be called South Coast Soccer City.

I'm told it will look very similar to the picture that accompanies the story.

The usual crew of anonymous bigots has hijacked the comment section at the bottom of the story, so allow me to clarify one thing: no taxpayer money is involved.

The tentacles of Los Angeles-based Anschutz Entertainment Group have infiltrated not only Southern California pop culture and civic life, but now extend around the world to include such figures as dead pop icon Michael Jackson and nominal Galaxy midfielder David Beckham.

But AEG, always it seems unnecessarily heavy-handed given their increasingly powerful and visible corporate profile, are now going after bacon-wrapped hot dog vendors at tonight's Gold Cup doubleheader at Home Depot Center.

Hollywood Hitmen. Coldplay. Ballack. SuperLiga. Fireworks. Canada. Messi. NBA.

A FourFourTwo magazine spineline stumper? No, today's column.

BTW, more info on the July 4 game at the Coliseum is here.

And here's the official SuperLiga Web site.

The 100 Percent Soccer blog is on hiatus until next weekend and there is no Tuesday column in the print edition either.

I have a couple of posts scheduled to appear and a guest blogger or two may show up, but there will be no news updates from me.

Is it a coincidence this happens during a week when the U.

I need to get down to work writing Tuesday's column, but wanted to note in passing that:

*The transfer rumor of the day had the Galaxy chasing Argentine defender Andrés D'Alessandro, who is currently with Brazilian team Internacional. The club reportedly turned down a $10 million bid from the Galaxy (and yes, that is yet another indication - were one needed - that Landon Donovan is indeed gone).

But I guess that's better than the 5 percent figure that was going to be on the March ballot.

Details here.

A 10 percent ticket tax proposal didn't find enough support on the City Council a couple of weeks ago, but now a 2 percent tax is under consideration tonight.

Photo by Juan Miranda/Chivas USA

Plenty of media attention for Juan Pablo Angel and the New York Red Bulls Friday, but is the general public noticing?

I pitched my editor (the news, not sports editor) a front page Robbie Rogers profile on Sunday to coincide with MLS Cup in Carson.

MLS officials are concerned about the quality of the U.S. Men's National Team and how that could reflect on the league, Commissioner Don Garber told more than 200 students, faculty and guests Thursday at the USC Marshall Sports Business Institute.

"Our national team is struggling," he said flatly.

Not much of a surprise there.

BTW, Carson shelved the idea of a Home Depot Center ticket tax - for now.

A thick, black pall of smoke is mostly blotting out the sun in Torrance this morning, miles from the worst of the wildfires in Orange County where hundreds have lost their homes.

A layer of gray ash is coating cars, sidewalks and everything else.

And there's a muffled, slightly subdued quality to the light and sound of this Sunday Southern California morning, lending a slightly unreal edge to what has been a surreal last few days.

No blogging today since I spent the day at the Biltmore Hotel in downtown L.A. for the 11th annual Hollywood Symposium (the precursor to Tuesday's Honda Player of the Year announcement).

A mostly tedious event was saved (in part - the muffins helped, too) by the presence of a rumpled and relaxed-looking Alexi Lalas who I chatted with for Tuesday's column about the shaky performance of the Mexican National Team (ever-politic Justino Compeán, president of the Mexican Football Federation, was one of the three speakers) so far in World Cup qualifying.

Great story in The Salt Lake City Tribune today about the life and death struggles Real Salt Lake striker Yura Movsisyan endured as a child growing up in war-torn Azerbaijan before his family emigrated to Pasadena. His proud parents will be watching their son from the Home Depot Center stands at Saturday's playoff decider against Chivas USA.

It isn't, at least not yet, as this Associated Press story points out.

The ever-escalating rights fees broadcasters are apparently willing to pay is one reason rich Americans are buying EPL teams, while eyeing similar growth in MLS.

As soccer's popularity grows in the U.S. we'll see a similar situation here - the would-be owners of MLS clubs willing to plunk down a $40 million expansion fee are counting on it.

This is an excellent SI article that while not specifically about MLS (in fact the article doesn't even mention soccer) has resonance for Galaxy fans.

This season especially has seen many of these, um, symptoms appear in Carson.

Beatlemania like screams every time David Beckham touches the ball.