Baseball star Pujols joins St. Louis bid for MLS team

Dominican baseball slugger Albert Pujols has joined the prospective ownership group bidding to obtain a Major League Soccer expansion team starting in 2011, the group announced Tuesday.

One day after the St. Louis Cardinals star was named Major League Baseball's National League Most Valuable Player for the just-concluded season, Pujols made his case for becoming an owner in a different sport.

"This means a lot to me and my family as we all love soccer and we believe in MLS," Pujols said. "This will be great for our community, especially our youth. St. Louis is an unbelievable sports town and we'll be a great city for Major League Soccer."

St. Louis Soccer United plans to build an 18,500-seat stadium as part of a proposed suburban complex with 12 fields.

Spanish league club Barcelona, seeking a team for Miami, is among six other groups competing for two MLS expansion teams. Also in the hunt are Atlanta, Portland, Oregon; and the Canadian cities of Montreal, Ottawa and Vancouver.

Seattle Sounders will join MLS next year as the 15th team while Philadelphia becomes the 16th MLS club in 2010.