Galaxy addition of Dos Santos could be more important to MLS than Beckham signing

So, at last, it happened. Late on Tuesday night – on whichever coast you were on – the Los Angeles Times confirmed that Mexican midfielder Giovani Dos Santos would be joining the Los Angeles Galaxy. Finally.

Such a deal had reportedly been close for weeks, speculated on for months and apparently in the works for years – as long ago as 2011, according to the Times. And with each passing day, the hype about Gio's arrival, with the player himself confirming that there were talks, was understandably amped up further.

Because the signing of Dos Santos, who comes over from Villarreal in Spain for a reported $7 million transfer fee and will ink a 4½ year contract – paying him less than second-most-recent splashy Galaxy signing Steven Gerrard's annual $6 million, per the Times, but probably not by much – is seminal.

Dos Santos is expected to join the team in early August, after wrapping up the ongoing CONCACAF Gold Cup with El Tri. When he does, it will mark the first time that a major Mexican star will play in Major League Soccer during his prime. And that's significant for all kinds of reasons.

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It means much more than a likely consolidation of the Los Angeles market for the Galaxy, who have had trouble drawing Mexican fans, before the rival Los Angeles FC starts up in 2018. It's more meaningful than simply adding another great player to the Galaxy lineup, which is already among the league's very best. And it's a far bigger deal than merely drawing another European-based star stateside on the twin promises of a fat salary and exposure to the richest endorsement market in the world.

Dos Santos, 26, who spent his entire career in Spain and England after coming through Barcelona's famed La Masia academy, represents a kind of soccer Holy Grail for MLS. A grail so holy, in fact, that MLS essentially re-wrote its rulebook just to accommodate his signing. The same way it once had for David Beckham.

In early 2007, with Beckham's signing by the same Galaxy from Real Madrid – at age 32, a fait accompli – the league devised the Designated Player rule. Every team would be allowed to keep one star's wages off the salary cap books – for the most part, anyway. Now, a "core player" has been invented, since the Galaxy already had the current limit of three DPs, and Dos Santos presumably didn't want to sign elsewhere.

The parallel might seem coincidental, but it isn't that entirely. While Dos Santos isn't nearly as famous as Beckham, or even as influential on the field, he likewise represents a coming of age for the league. Signing Beckham, even doing so when Real no longer wanted him (although it later changed its mind) was seen as the league's arrival on the world stage. Its newfound ability to sign such a player suggested legitimacy.

Dos Santos is one of the best players in North America. For the league to be able to snag him squarely in his prime – while he was by no means surplus to requirements over in Europe – is another major victory.

A recent spate of arrivals by fading European stars – the aforementioned Gerrard; Frank Lampard, David Villa and Andrea Pirlo at NYCFC – underscores that MLS, or its teams anyway, isn't yet willing to eschew the costly rental of star power in order to shed the image of being a retirement league. But Toronto FC's signing of 28-year-old Italian national teamer Sebastian Giovinco – along with the big checks cut to bring Americans Michael Bradley and Jozy Altidore back to MLS – show that there is an appetite for younger stars, and that they're willing to satiate it by coming to the United States as well.

Dos Santos underscores that notion. MLS speaks about becoming a "destination league" where players want to play, well before they're over the hill and looking for one final seven- or eight-figure contract. Having snagged him before Liga MX of his homeland could – even though that outfit is better-established, supported and funded – signals that MLS can be a place you go long before Europe has no more challenges to offer you.

Gio also gives MLS a chance to make real inroads in the Hispanic-American market, where it has struggled. Many natively Spanish-speaking immigrants, who might someday help make up a majority, cling to their hometown teams from their home countries. But with one of the biggest Mexican stars playing on the circuit of the country they live, new Mexican-American fans could begin turning on their TVs and buying tickets to the stadiums. In that demographic, MLS could slowly start to become the most important league in its own country, which it currently isn't.

In that regard, Dos Santos's signing could be as important as Beckham's. If he inspires a raft of elite early- and mid-20-somethings to follow in his wake – just as Beckham did for other rich and famous veterans – and if he convinces a new generation of potential fans to give MLS a shot – his signing could be even more important than Beckham's.

Leander Schaerlaeckens is a soccer columnist for Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter @LeanderAlphabet.