Footballer, model and, one day, club chairman? David Beckham is reported to have an option to buy a Major League Soccer [MLS] club when his contract with the Los Angeles Galaxy expires after the 2011 season.

According to the makers of the CBS programme, 60 Minutes, to be broadcast tomorrow, the option to buy an MLS club was granted to Beckham and Simon Fuller, his manager, by the Anschutz Entertainment Group [AEG], the owners of the Galaxy as well as a number of other teams and venues worldwide, as part of the deal that took him to the California club.

The Times understands that reports yesterday suggesting that the Galaxy are up for sale are wide of the mark, and that the former England captain has not even begun to consider whether or not to take up the option.

“We don’t comment on rumour or speculation,” Simon Oliveira, Beckham’s spokesman, said. “David’s focus at present is on playing for the Galaxy and his country.”

Beckham already has a considerable incentive to raise the profile of the Galaxy in that he receives a share of revenues from the club’s ticket, concession and merchandise sales in addition to his $5.5 million (about £2.78 million) salary. But if he is likely to end up in a boardroom after his days in the dressing-room are over, he has even greater motivation for exerting a similar influence on behalf of the American game as a whole.

According to Tim Leiweke, the president of AEG, Beckham has already exceeded the financial expectations of his move into the MLS despite a first half-season blighted by a series of injuries, which reduced his contributions to one goal and three assists in four starts for the team. “When we sat down, with a piece of paper, and said to David, ‘Here’s what we think you can make here,’ he did better than that,” Leiweke told 60 Minutes.

AEG’s extensive range of interests in sports and entertainment means that it can easily afford to sell off part of its empire. In US soccer alone it developed, owns and operates The Home Depot Center in Carson, California, the home ground of the Galaxy and Chivas USA, and the US headquarters of the David Beckham Academy. It also owns or has owned a number of other MLS teams and controls various marketing and broadcast rights to MLS and international teams.

A possible move into ownership explains Beckham’s motivation for the recent hard work he has been putting in on the celebrity circuit, boosting awareness of soccer in the United States as well as that of Brand Beckham. On Wednesday he attended a black-tie event in New York in aid of the US Soccer Foundation in the company of Pelé, and — having travelled back to the West Coast by private jet — gave a number of television interviews after training on Thursday.

In addition to the CBS programme, in which he is interviewed by Anderson Cooper of CNN, demonstrates the art of taking free kicks and gives viewers a guided tour of his tattoos, he is also scheduled to appear on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, a high-profile talk show.

Beckham is in line to make his 100th appearance for England in Wednesday’s friendly against France in Paris. Reactions in Los Angeles were positive even though the game is only three days before the Galaxy’s opening game of the 2008 regular season, away to Colorado Rapids a week today.

“It’ll be a wonderful moment for David and something that I think he’s looked forward to and, in a certain way, has weighed on everybody’s mind, including David’s,” Alexi Lalas, the Galaxy president and general manager, said. “So it will be nice to finally get to that pinnacle that we all know he can get to and deserves.” Next stop, Alexi, your office.

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