Fat Soccer Players Frowned Upon At Galaxy Tryout

David Beckham's new team apparently doesn't appreciate wannabe soccer stars paying $130 for a tryout and then showing up with Buddah bellies.

Alexi Lalas, the Galaxy's president and general manager held open tryouts at the Home Depot Center on Saturday and although he said that the team probably identified a few walk-ons (confirmed later), there were several gentlemen who were... well... fat.

What's a little disappointing to me, but not unexpected, is that you can be a bad soccer player, OK, and you might not be the fastest or you might not be the most skilled, but don't show up here and be out of shape.

I mean, some of the beer guts that we see and guys who after 10 minutes are huffing and puffing, that's embarrassing to the Galaxy, it's embarrassing to the game and ultimately it's embarrassing to them.

So we weed those folks out pretty quickly and concentrate on the ones that have shown up here with a respect for what it takes to get to this level. - LA Times

Since the Galaxy allegedly has spent a quarter billion to sign Beckham for a few years, LAist thinks Lalas should do himself a favor and hold an American Idol type tryout next time. We want to see these fat soccer players! We want to see rent-a-cops putting on their shorts and huffing and puffing after ten minutes!

If you want to bring soccer to America, LA Galaxy, you've gotta present it to us in a way we understand: Fox-like. Plus you might find some better players for your stinky team.

photo by Malingering