Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard is set to follow the footsteps of David Beckham and join MLS side Los Angeles Galaxy when his contract with the Reds expires this summer.
The 34-year-old midfielder, who has confirmed that he will be leaving Anfield after the end of this season, will reportedly join LA Galaxy in an 18-month deal worth around £6 million.
Although the salary structure in the Major League soccer is very rigid, each team is allowed to have three star players who get paid better than the rest of the team.
The recent retirement of Galaxy captain Landon Donovan, the all-time top scorer in the MLS, has allowed the entry of Gerrard as a star player.
Former LA Galaxy defender Alexi Lalas expressed his delight after hearing Gerrard will be arriving in the USA, insisting that the Liverpool midfielder will be "an ambassador" for the Major League Soccer both on and off the pitch.
"There's no way around the fact that he's a legend, but when he gets here he has got to perform for a team that is already very, very good," Lalas told BBC news. "That is ultimately what he will be judged on, just the way David Beckham was."
Meanwhile, Gerrard says that he would not be leaving Anfield at the end of the season if Liverpool had offered him a new contract last summer.
"If a contract had been put in front of me in pre-season I would have signed it," Gerrard told the Liverpool Echo.
The Merseyside club did offer a new deal to Gerrard in November, but the 34-year-old decided to turn it down and opted to make a move to the USA instead.
Gerrard admits that the talks with manager Brendan Rodgers about his reduced playing time in the future was the reason he decided to turn down the 12-month extension that month.
"I'd just retired from England to concentrate all my efforts on Liverpool," added Gerrard. "I didn't want my club games to be tailored. My injury record had been fantastic for the past two and a half years and I had a great season from a personal point of view last season."
"It's all ifs, buts and hindsight now. That period between the summer and the end of November gave me thinking time."
"It simply came down to the fact that the idea of becoming a squad player didn't excite me or motivate me," added Gerrard. "I've never wanted to be a squad player. If I was missing games now, I'd be sitting out even more next season. I knew it would get worse and worse as time went on."
