David Beckham disagrees with MLS commissioner as he calls for new Las Vegas team

With plans in place for MLS to expand, David Beckham has given his approval to a hypothetical Las Vegas expansion outfit, despite the league's commissioner having mixed opinions on the prospect

David Beckham has predicted that an MLS team could eventually be established in the Las Vegas Raiders following the successful move of the Raiders to Sin City, despite MLS commissioner Don Garber suggesting there would be a soft cap for the league.

The former England captain's blockbuster move to the LA Galaxy in 2007 helped to transform the popularity of the soccer in the US during his time stateside. As part of his contract, he was offered the chance to own his own franchise and he realised his dream in the form of Inter Miami back in 2018.

The world-famous football icon knows a business opportunity when he sees one and he has now predicted that Las Vegas may be one of the next locations to be home to a MLS franchise. Current plans for the expansion of the leading US league will see the total number of teams reach 30 by 2025, with the introduction of San Diego FC.

Now Beckham has thrown his weight behind the idea that MLS could head to Sin City, calling the prospect a 'real opportunity'. Vegas has become a popular sporting hotbed in recent times, with NFL team the Raiders having been joined by the Oakland Athletics baseball team there this year.

The Las Vegas Golden Knights NHL team also was established as part of a league expansion in 2016, with the Las Vegas Grand Prix having saw Formula One come to the world-famous Las Vegas strip earlier this month.

Beckham said: "We've seen the hockey team come in and do incredibly well, and obviously the [Las Vegas] Raiders being here, he asserted as he predicted that MLS could follow suit in the coming years, adding: "In the future, who knows with MLS and if a team comes here to Vegas."

MLS commissioner Garber has previously teased that the league will likely expand in the future and he also admitted that Vegas was under consideration for an expansion franchise. He also explained to ESPN that there has been interest from potential investors, including Aston Villa and Milwaukee Bucks co-owner Wes Edens.

However, he did seem to have mixed opinions over the prospect of the amount of teams going over the 30 mark in the future for a host of reasons. He did show favour for an expansion but seemed determined to find a balance between an optimum amount of teams and covering as much of MLS' territories as possible.

He said: "The league needs to be larger for all the reasons that make sense. Not the least that we're trying to grow the connectivity of a professional league in a market/environment when you don't have to worry about that in any other country in the world.

"I do believe the league will be 30 teams, we want to get there and announced by the end of the year. We don't have any plans to go beyond that, but the other major leagues in the US and Canada are 30 or larger.

Garber added: "Once we decided we want to expand the league to cover the geography of the US and Canada there's no reason we shouldn't go larger, but no plans for that yet. There are a lot of big cities in this country that don't have teams."