Beckham's Boys

David Beckham is finalizing plans to start a Major League Soccer franchise, and hoping his son Brooklyn can one day take the field for his team. While worried about putting pressure on his children to follow in his famous footsteps, the former England captain tells The Associated Press that he hopes Brooklyn can be good enough to play on his team one day.

Five months after retiring from soccer, Beckham is putting the finishing touches on investment plans before asking the MLS to allow him to start up an expansion franchise in Miami.

Already, 14-year-old son Brooklyn has shown he could be the next Beckham to make it as a professional player. There have been spells with Chelsea and Queens Park Rangers after playing for a Los Angeles Galaxy youth team during his father's time in the MLS. Asked if he would like to see Brooklyn in his MLS team, Beckham told the AP in an interview Wednesday: "Yes, hopefully, hopefully."

Beckham has two other sons — 11-year-old Romeo and 8-year-old Cruz — who could of course make the grade. "As long as the boys are happy, as long as they enjoy playing football and they have fun doing it then, whether they play at professional level or whether they play at Sunday league level, I don't care," Beckham said.

What troubles Beckham is that his sons will be unable to develop as soccer players away from the spotlight — if that's the career they wish to pursue — with Brooklyn's training spells with English teams quickly becoming public. "Obviously, any time the boys go and train at a club, there's a certain amount of pressure on them because it's highlighted and that's a shame at times," Beckham said. "But they are level-headed children, they are fun, they love playing the game. So we will see."

                                                                                                                      -Riley Dyer