Beckham In Town Working On New Team & Celebrating High School Soccer Championships
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) - Soccer star David Beckham is back in Miami to work on his new Major League Soccer team and celebrate a couple of soccer championships in Miami.
Beckham arrived Thursday afternoon and met with his business partners - Jorge and Jose Mas - to strategize about the team's branding, sponsorship, philosophy, and style, according to CBS4 news partner The Miami Herald.
While Beckham is in town, it's not all work. He and Jorge Mas took time Friday to visit some local soccer champs.
They visited Palmer Trinity School in Palmetto Bay to help celebrate the school's first Florida high school soccer station championship.
The global soccer icon also visited Our Lady of Lourdes Academy to celebrate the girls soccer state title championship.
My @futbolmiamimls partner David Beckham and I had a great time visiting our state championship soccer team @BobcatSports. Congratulations girls for your hard work and dedication. pic.twitter.com/zBA4gIws7P
— Jorge Mas (@Jorge__Mas) March 2, 2018
For Beckham, the outreach is one key part of his plan to start building a fan base.
"How can you not enjoy these moments?" Beckham told The Associated Press following the Palmer Trinity ceremony, and before he made the 30-minute ride to downtown Miami for an afternoon of MLS-related meetings. "For me, it's always been important to go to different schools around the world, luckily, and I've seen some amazing kids and some amazing young talented kids as well. It's obvious, but kids are our future."
Beckham and his business partner Jorge Mas both donned Palmer Trinity shirts for the party, posed for a ton of selfies and spoke to the kids — enjoying it all so much that they stayed longer than they planned. Their MLS team doesn't have a name yet, but it's a safe bet the franchise picked up plenty of new fans Friday.
"It's the first soccer state title for our school, so that's special on its own," said Palmer Trinity board of trustees chair Michael Baiamonte. "And then having David Beckham here to celebrate with our students, that makes it even more memorable for them. They know not everyone gets a chance for a day like this."
Beckham has said he plans to be active and visible in Miami during the process of getting his team launched. It took the former Manchester United, Real Madrid, LA Galaxy and English national team star several years to make his vision of bringing an MLS franchise back to South Florida a reality, and the team was officially awarded last month.
There's still no team name, colors or roster. And while there are plans for a stadium to open in 2021, it's still unclear where the team will play in its inaugural season. He said there's movement on a number of issues, including progress on the stadium his group will build, but offered no specifics.
"We are moving on a very tight schedule," Beckham said. "We're very confident that things are going very well at the moment. There's a lot of work that's been done since the announcement, and it's only been four weeks."
(© Copyright 2018 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)