I thought that after a few days, the hype about David Beckham and the effect he is going to have on soccer here would die down, except of course, in those media outlets where ignorance about the world’s greatest game reigns supreme. Everybody wants to write something about Beckham, even if they don’t don’t know the first thing about the sport.

But no, the outpouring of verbiage continues. Newspaper columns keep coming, intercontinental phone hook-ups produce the player’s comments, old clips of Beckham’s free kicks are shown over and over, and reporters follow his wife as she goes house-hunting in L.A. Will Becks and Posh join Tom Cruise and his wife in the weirdness of Scientology? On and on it goes, and only occasionally is it about the game and Beckham’s skills.

Let me try to introduce some sanity into the discussion. Beckham is not like the King Midas of mythology; he will not turn everything he touches into gold for the game. No, I don’t think that five years of David Beckham will upgrade Major League Soccer into the ranks of competitions like the Premiership, Serie A, La Liga or the Bundesliga. Yes, I do believe that attendance will go up–at least for a year or two–wherever he plays. And his marketing image will sell thousands of shirts and other paraphernalia. That alone will be good for Major League Soccer and U.S. Soccer, but it will not be a permanent fix. Here’s why.

David Beckham or any other world-class player will provide only a temporary improvement in the game. The overall product week in, week out will be the same. Yet it is the overall product that attracts a permanent audience, and that will change only over years of progress. I am sure that players around the world have made a note of the money that Beckham is going to make here, and I am equally sure that other clubs in MLS may try to find funds to hire some top-class names, now that the “Beckham rule” is available for breaching the salary cap.

But let’s assume that a dozen other great players come here. Does that automatically improve the quality of players being drafted out of college? These are the future of the league, and even if they are good enough to play in Europe, learning the necessary professional skills, it will be years before we see the teams in MLS benefiting from players’ development. Individual great players are only a temporary solution to what ails MLS. We saw many, many great players in the North American Soccer League, and they weren’t enough to keep the league alive.

Having said all that, and having brought some pessimism into the discussion, I can also say that I am going to enjoy watching him play. He’s got a good coach who has played at the highest level, he has some talent around him, and he’s always been a team player. David Beckham will be good to watch, just as Pele, Cruyff, Best, Moore, Beckenbauer and all the others were good to watch….while they were here.

Tomorrow, I’ll write about what to look for when Beckham steps on the field. In the meantime, go to the LA Times for the results of a poll on the effect that Becks will have.

Now that all the hoopla has died down, the excitement diminished to a something-less-than-hysterical level, and all the exaggerations in the press about David Beckham and the impact he will have on U. S. Soccer have been published, perhaps it’s time to analyze what this huge fuss means. A good player, world-famous, moves to the Los Angeles Galaxy from one of the top clubs in the world, and all of a sudden, the future of professional soccer in the United States is assured for posterity. Really?

Let me say at the start that I am pleased Beckham is coming to play here. He’ll be a pleasure to watch, he may be able to pass on some of his knowledge and experience to younger American players, he’ll be playing for a good coach who will know how to use him, and there is no doubt that he will raise attendance, especially in his first couple of years. But should we believe all the things that are being said? Here’s a sampling…

“David Beckham will have a greater impact on soccer in America than any athlete has ever had on a sport globally.” (Timothy Leiweke, president of AEG, owners of the LA Galaxy, who made the quarter-billion dollar deal with the Real Madrid midfielder.)

“Not since the Beatles has there been a British invasion of this magnitude.” (Michelle Kaufman, Miami Herald.)

“David Beckham . . . will transcend the sport of soccer in America.” (MLS commissioner Dan Garber.)

Amid all this euphoria, I hate to be a downer. But if I hadn’t seen all this before, I wouldn’t be so skeptical or cynical. From the inside I watched the rise and fall of the empire that was the North American Soccer League from 1971 to 1984. That league had world-class players, all of whom were sure to turn the game around in this country. I saw Pele come and go, Johann Cruyff sprint and weave again and again past opponents, George Best mesmerize them, Giorgio Chinaglia bury ball after ball in the back of the net. Carlos Alberto, Roberto Bettega, Gerd Muller, Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst, Hugo Sanchez, Romerito, Trevor Francis, Franz Beckenbauer; all those world stars played in the NASL. And I was here in the fall of 1984, when the empire that had promised so much lost its last battle.

Can one player save professional soccer? Can one player give our game so much credibility that fans will keep on coming long after Beckham has gone?

I think not, and tomorrow I’ll tell you why.