Beckham’s Milan Loan Finalized

Okay, great, we can all exhale. David Beckham has officially worked out his tediously discussed loan spell to AC Milan. At the moment the exact length of the loan spell hasn't been fully disclosed. All signs point toward Beckham to be back for the start of the 2009 MLS season in April.

In this whole, tiresome, saga the clear winners are Milan and Beckham, as they both ought to fill the coffers via rumored No. 75 replica jerseys. Beckham at least gets to show England manager Fabio Capello that he's still a viable option for the Three Lions, even though he'll likely just cameo in the Rosseneiri's already stacked (and aged) midfield. Milan wins because it can roll out a fantasy dream lineup, that could theoretically feature, Beckham, Ronaldinho, Kaka, Andrea Pirlo, Andriy Shevchenko, Gennaro Gattuso, Clarence Seedorf, and according to a Wikipedia vandalizer, glam-rocker Gary Glitter.

MLS essentially gets nothing out of the deal and needs to keep its fingers crossed that Beckham doesn't pick up an injury. It also shows that Beckham and his management are pulling the strings behind the scenes at the Los Angeles Galaxy.

During this whole affair Beckham did at least make one useful point, noting that nowhere aside from MLS do players get such a long break between seasons, so he's used to playing nearly 11 months out of the year.

Naturally, if you tune into tonight's MLS playoff between the Chicago Fire and New England Revolution on ESPN2 you can play the Beckham drinking game. My suggestion is to avoid hard liqour and stick with beer, or else you might need to use a sick day on Friday.