BECKS TO HEAD STATESIDE?

That Beckham could do for Major League Soccer what Pele did for the now defunct North American Soccer League in the 1970s may make sense.

When the Brazilian World Cup winner came out of retirement and signed a three-year deal with the New York Cosmos in 1975, he turned not merely the league on its head but the sport itself, transforming it from that game played by foreigners into the hottest ticket in town.

Major League Soccer is a different proposition. Established as part of the agreement that landed the US the 1994 World Cup finals, MLS places a greater emphasis on home-grown players and the teams play in smaller, often purpose-built stadiums.

The competition has a loyal and enthusiastic constituency, although 11 seasons into its life attendances are now static. Why? Well, it is not because Americans do not get soccer. They do.

If anything, they get more soccer than we do, and for a fraction of the price. With an average cable-television system in the US you can watch virtually every Premiership match each weekend, as well as live games from Spain, Mexico and France.

The problem with such widespread coverage is that American soccer fans now know only too well what a great game looks like and, for the most part, they do not get that in MLS.

The MLS salaries are not great either. This year the league's highest-paid player will be Chivas USA's former Mexico international Juan Francisco Palencia who, even with bonuses, will make only $1.36m, about an eighth of what Beckham currently earns at the Bernabéu.

That MLS is examining ways to make an exception to the salary-cap rule for Beckham suggests it is keen to do business. The fact that it has been talking about it for a year and still not acted, though, suggests otherwise.

With Beckham, whose career in Europe seems over at the preposterously young age of 31, there would be an opportunity to capture the poster boy that American soccer has been crying out for, even in the days of the NASL.