Among MLS owners, Inter Miami's David Beckham is less 'phony' than most | OneFootball

By all accounts, from the moment Inter Miami entered the league, they have left no stone unturned trying to acquire every player and resource that they believed could help them win.

In the bad old days before Lionel Messi, they breached MLS roster rules to sign what amounted to a fourth Designated Player contract when the MLS limit was three.

Since Messi's arrival, they were not just content with the guaranteed revenue that comes from having the world's greatest living player on your roster.

Instead, they invested in bringing several of his former FC Barcelona teammates to South Florida, also made a reported overture toward exiting Manchester City star Kevin De Bruyne, and are thought to be in on Messi's longtime international teammate Angel di Maria.

And to make sure they were maximizing their revenue potential to do such business, they've scheduled lucrative globe-trotting preseason tours to capitalize on Messi's fame.

'Phony' barb is an indictment of MLS culture

In short, Inter Miami's behavior under Beckham and the co-owning Mas Brothers resembles how a "big club" seriously focused on winning multiple pieces of silverware every season would be expected to behave.

Among rival social media club admins in MLS, it's apparenty considered "phony."

Look, the "Pink Phony Club" assertion by Minnesota United's social media team was a clever reference to one of the world's biggest stars in the cultural zeitgeist. Beckham taking the bait and responding to it may not have been the greatest move for his own image, but it also falls squarely in the "all publicity is good publicity" category.

But from 30,000 feet, the whole saga also shows just how sideways MLS culture is relative to the norm across the football world.

In England, Spain or France, Miami's behavior would fall squarely in line with the machenations of Manchester City, Paris St-Germain or Real Madrid.

It's Minnesota United -- who, for the sake of argument let's say occupies a place in the MLS hierarchy closer to Brighton and Hove Albion or Brentford in the Premier League -- whose behavior would be considered strange.

The Loons (in MLS) have a spotty track record

For example, manager Eric Ramsay has proven to be a great hire for the Loons. He was also appointed seven months after previous permanent manager Adrian Heath was finally dispatched, as the club waited first to hire a new sporting director. The lack of urgency in that search was only permissible because of the stability MLS' closed league structure provides, and would be unthinkable in a first-tier European squad.

There's also the whole episode with previous Loons playmaker Emmanuel Reynoso, who failed to report on time to not one but two preseason camps before finally arriving at a transfer agreement last May. The approach, from the outside, always appeared to be about recouping as much of the cost from signing Reynoso as possible. Figuring out how to rebuild the team absent his image came afterward.

This finances first and competitiveness second orientation is not unheard of elsewhere in the football world, but as far as the portion of global soccer Americans pay attention to, it is exceedingly rare. And when it occurs, it usually prompts widespread outrage from supporters. The far more common financial quandary is clubs that have overextended themselves in search of glory.

By comparison, Beckham's Miami is one of the few teams that from the start has appeared to have a relentless focus on making the team as successful on and off the field at the same time.

They have shown plenty of flaws along the way, not the least of which showing too little trust in managers and sporting directors who have demonstrated success in MLS. But in nearly every country in the world, that's how big money pro soccer works. You show urgency. You make mistakes. You adjust quickly.