David Beckham wants to stay at LA Galaxy – New York Cosmos vice chairman Terry Byrne

LA Galaxy star David Beckham has just one year to run on his contract with the MLS club, but New York Cosmos vice chairman Terry Byrne believes the former England captain will stick around.

Rumours of a move back to Europe have surfaced after Beckham, 36, trained with Tottenham earlier this year, but Byrne – Becks’ former manager and a close friend of the midfielder – is confident he will stay in California.

“I don’t think that he’ll be short of offers, but I think he will want to remain here,” Byrne revealed to Goal.com.

“I think from a impact perspective, I think he’s done great things for the league and I think he’s enjoyed every bit of it.”

A host of aging Premier League stars have also been linked with a move to North America, including Chelsea veteran Nicolas Anelka who recently insisted that a move to MLS is unlikely, and Aston Villa star Robert Pires, who turned down the Philadelphia Union.

But Byrne believes those players would benefit from taking the plunge.

“Sometimes it’s the fear of the unknown,” Byrne explained. “You know New York and you know L.A. but if you’re coming from France or England, you may not know Vancouver. To take your family across the pond, it’s a difficult decision to migrate for anybody. They’ve been to New York or L.A. on holiday. Therefore, they know the area a bit better.

“When David first came to league, Zidane, Luis Figo, Ronaldo, all of the players that he played with at Madrid were looking at coming here,” he added.

“It never happened because all of the individual owners that they spoke with could not come up with deals that they were happy with.”

Beckham will square off against former side Manchester United tonight for an MLS All-Star side, but he could have ended up at another Premier League side, revealed Byrne.

“When I was managing David, they nearly played together at Arsenal,” Byrne said. “He almost went there instead of Real Madrid. Thierry was pleading with the club to sign him and they were going to pair David and Patrick Viera together in the middle but it didn’t go through.”