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Tim Noonan

He can't honestly be called a saviour because, at this stage at least, there really is nothing to save. If anything, David Beckham is a messiah.

With his recent move from Spain's Real Madrid, one of sport's most famous teams, to the largely unknown Los Angeles Galaxy, Beckham becomes the latest in a line of past-their-prime soccer stars who will attempt to puncture a hole in the consciousness of American sports fans.

Beckham is a 32-year-old dead-ball specialist whose hairstyle has traditionally attracted far more interest than his scoring touch.

He has never been mentioned in any discussion about the best footballers in the game and yet he is arguably the most recognised athlete in the world.

There is not a crack in the universe where Beckham can safely hide.

There were more photographers waiting to meet Beckham's plane in LA last week than there were waiting for Paris Hilton when she left prison, which is a remarkable feat for anyone, never mind a soccer player in the US. What Beckham coming to America does is put Major League Soccer (MLS) under the microscope like never before.

Despite what you may have heard, there is love for the game of soccer in the US. There is just not much love for the professional version. Maybe Beckham can change that, maybe not.

He is certainly off to a good start. In 13 years of its existence, I can't recall an MLS player on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

This week it was Beckham, clad in LA Galaxy white, adorning the cover of the famous magazine. Beckham will undoubtedly shine the light on the MLS, but it will be up to the league to sustain that unprecedented exposure by putting a quality product on the field. That is why he was paid an ungodly sum to go to America.

But while Beckham's reception in the US will be interesting, far more fascinating is the reaction to Beckham in Europe right now.

They all but buried him in both Spain and England. He had been banished from club and country and although he never lamented it publicly, it had to sting.

Soccer neophyte that I am, I always liked Beckham and particularly this year when it was fashionable not to.

Ask any of the Hong Kong players, who all had a personal post-game picture taken with Beckham long after his teammates had departed the pitch when Real Madrid played a team of nobodies here back in 2003, and they will tell you what seems obvious: he is incurably decent and thoughtful in an era when sports stars are routinely neither. Beyond the hair dyes and tattoos and his fame-lusting wife, Beckham truly seems to understand how fortunate his life has been. And since I don't live and die with England's national team, a squad and programme that perpetually underachieves, I bear him no animosity on that front either.

Still, you could argue that Beckham's surgical strike from a penalty kick against Argentina to give England a 1-0 win in the 2002 World Cup is the premier highlight of the national team over the last 20 years.

And yet they couldn't get the bum off the squad fast enough. One of the first acts of newly installed England manager Steve McClaren last year was dropping Beckham from the team and he did it in a particularly unmerciful manner to show one and all he was in charge of the team now.

The feeling in England was that Beckham's days as a top player were done and he was not worth the baggage he would bring, most notably the media circus and his meddling wife.

The announcement this past January that Beckham was moving to the US was also met with a colossal shrug in England. So what, who cares?

In Madrid, his signing with the Galaxy earned him immediate banishment from manager Fabio Capello's line-up. He was free to train with the team, he just would not play.

Team president Roman Calderon claimed Beckham would be 'a B-list actor living in Hollywood'. But Capello's star-laden squad continued to flounder and he was forced to put Beckham back in the line-up.

Real had a renaissance, which Beckham played a pivotal role in, and they surprisingly won the La Liga title.

Real Madrid then called the Galaxy and asked if they could re-acquire Beckham before being laughed off the phone by the people in LA.

McClaren, feeling the heat for his woeful national squad, also recalled Beckham to the England team, which he dutifully accepted.

He set up three goals in his first two games and all of a sudden the same vitriolic media who sneered at his move to the US were worried to death that playing in such a poor league would dull his sharpness for national duty.

One would think that the notoriously insecure folks in England would be tickled that one of their own was causing such a ruckus in the US. But no, instead they are using the opportunity to habitually bash the level of play in America.

Ironically, the arrogance the English, and the rest of Europe for that matter, exhibit to soccer in the US is the essence of Americana. The US has redefined the code of sporting condescension towards the rest of the world in baseball and basketball. The Yanks have been saying forever that no one is better than they are in those two sports.

And yet, they are world champions in neither. Go figure. But none of this has fazed Beckham, nor should it. He left the arrogance of European football on his own terms. For that reason alone, his trip to the US is already a success.

