USMNT legend Alexi Lalas opens up on ‘the hurricane of David Beckham’ to LA Galaxy as former president has ‘no regrets’ despite it losing him his job

• Lalas opens up on Beckham arrival
• A 'hurricane' for all involved
• Beckham making headlines as owner with Messi deal

WHAT HAPPENED? Beckham changed the trajectory of MLS back in 2007 when he announced he was leaving Real Madrid for the LA Galaxy, becoming the biggest star to make their way to the league to that point. Beckham, of course, was instrumental in changing the league once again last week when his Inter Miami sealed the recruitment of Lionel Messi, who is set to sign with the club this summer.

Beckham's move, though, was anything but easy, as everyone involved needed to adjust to the new order of things once he arrived in LA. Lalas, who was the Galaxy's general manager and president at the time of Beckham's arrival, ultimately paid the price with his job, but he says it ended up all being worth it.

WHAT THEY SAID: "Ultimately I got fired in 2008 but I don’t regret any of it," Lalas told the Daily Mail. "I was very young and I made plenty of mistakes along the way. But I remain incredibly proud of the time I spent at the Galaxy. We dealt with something that nobody has ever dealt with, which was the hurricane of David Beckham.

"There was collateral damage but we learned and I learned. We were trying to do something big and bold. The decision to sign David Beckham – I mean, look, you pay him a lot of money and you don’t need me to tell you that helps. We literally had to change the rules in MLS in order to accommodate a signing like him. We had to do that and then we had to make him an offer he couldn’t refuse, and we did.

"But there is a whole machine that is David Beckham. It fundamentally changed the league. Obviously, it changed the Galaxy. We were signing one of the most famous people in the world and all the baggage that comes with that, to be honest."

THE BIGGER PICTURE: Lalas went on to describe the difficulties of handling Beckham's early days in MLS, which saw him play with teammates nowhere near his stature after spending his career with Manchester United and Real Madrid.

It did all come good in 2011 and 2012, when Beckham and the Galaxy finally won a pair of MLS Cups, but the early days were difficult, as Lalas added: "Initially, as great as it was, it produced a lot of challenges for us. The balance of the Galaxy versus the Beckham machine was often out of whack. It took a while for it to get in a more balanced position because what is better for David Beckham the brand isn’t always good for LA Galaxy the brand.

"There are also practical realities when it comes to the disparity in pay. You’ve got a guy who is making tens of millions of dollars and has all of these incredible advantages, and a guy who is struggling to pay for his apartment. There are the internal dynamics of a locker-room that David had to negotiate, and our coaching staff and all the players had to figure out who is this guy? Along the way, I made mistakes and that balance needed to be shifted. It just took time to get to that place."

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IN THREE PHOTOS:

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WHAT NEXT? Beckham's big signing, Messi, will make his debut at some point this summer, walking into a league very different than the one his new boss joined in 2007. Still, Messi's arrival will be an interesting experiment as he joins a last-place Inter Miami team.

Beckham's old team, the Galaxy, is struggling as well as they sit second-to-last in the West with their star striker, Javier 'Chicharito' Hernandez out for the season after tearing his ACL.