DAVID Beckham may like to keep his new pal Tom Cruise's telephone number handy.

Because, according to a North West professor, the former United ace's new é128m job to convert America to the delights of the Beautiful Game is just Mission Impossible.

So says Ellis Cashmore, professor of culture, media and sport at Staffordshire University and author of Beckham, a book which analysed the appeal of "the most celebrated athlete of his time, perhaps ever."

"He may well believe honestly that he can do this one-man evangelical thing and propel the sport in the US into the major leagues," says Cashmore.

"But he can't. When he travels to places like Columbus, Ohio, or Kansas City, he will be playing in front of 3-6,000 people - in other words the kind of gates you would expect at Walsall football club. If he thinks he can single-handedly turn that into a Bernabeu-type set up, he is misguided."

His words are echoed by those of PR guru Max Clifford, who recalls how Pelé and George Best had both failed to do what Beckham is now being paid so handsomely to do.

"Football is not big in America, David Beckham is not big in America, football does not mean much," said Clifford bluntly.

"What LA Galaxy have bought is not so much sporting talent - a 31-year old footballer no longer able to win a place in his national side, or even a regular first team place at his club Real Madrid - but a gleaming symbol of celebrity.

Talked-about

"It isn't any longer - and hasn't been for many years - about whether he's a top-class footballer, whether he's in the top ten in the world," says Cashmore. "He's probably not in the top 300 players in the world. But he's still the most talked-about, and now he's certainly the best-paid footballer in history."

The value of Brand Beckham is incalculable. A million Real Madrid replica shirts were sold bearing his name. It is no coincidence that Beckham has found himself at the richest football clubs in the world - Real Madrid and United before that.

But the USA is the country least susceptible to the Beckham magic. Soccer comes way behind basketball, baseball, American football and ice hockey in their affections. All of which makes the reported deal offered by LA Galaxy all the more mind-boggling.

"I do this sort of thing for a living. I am meant to know about football business, and I cannot see how this makes any sense whatsoever, to put the guy on the same kind of salary as Alex Rodriguez the baseball player, Kobe Bryant the basketball player or the Atlanta quarter-back Michael Vick," says Cashmore. "They are all players in sports which bring the TV viewers in and with that the ad revenue. MLS does not have a big contract with a terrestrial TV channel in the USA. There will be interest beyond America, but the deal still does not add up.

"When I talk to Americans - and I'm a pretty frequent visitor to the US - they say of Beckham `Oh yes, he's that soccer player you guys rave about. Didn't he marry a pop star from the 1990s?' She's a has-been."

It is former Spice Girl Victoria who, Cashmore believes, is the power behind the throne - the one who wanted Beckham to see out his playing career in the Californian sun.

"She is the brains behind the outfit," he says. "My argument is that during those years when the other Spice Girls were enjoying life, she was making notes, thinking `This is how you build a celebrity'. When she met Beckham, she really felt `I'm going to try this on a footballer'."

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