When Pele joined the New York Cosmos of the North American Soccer League in the mid-1970s, the believers proclaimed that football had finally arrived in the United States. It hadn't.

When, on American Independence Day in 1988, FIFA awarded the 1994 World Cup finals to the United States, the believers proclaimed again that football had finally arrived in the country. It was another false dawn.

This week David Beckham, still near the peak of his physical powers at the age of 31 signed a five-year, $250 million deal -- worth about $1.0m a week (510,000 pounds) -- with the Los Angeles Galaxy football club.

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He was, he said, not doing it for the money but to help build the club and the sport in the United States.

Whether he can succeed where Pele, the 1994 World Cup finals, and their smiling dog mascot called Striker all failed must be open to some considerable doubt.

What is not in doubt is that Major League Soccer will gain a massive boost in its popularity, media impact and attendance figures from the time Beckham arrives in the summer.

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Ivan Gazidis, the league's deputy commissioner, says that Beckham's arrival is another major milestone for the MLS, whose executives are determined not to repeat the mistakes of the past.

Gazidis talks of steady, sustained, growth for the league and the sport in the United States and Canada, and Beckham's arrival will aid their objectives, certainly initially.

Whether top-level football will ever take deep root, though, in the mainstream of American sport or its culture is probably a step too far even for Beckham to achieve.

BIG NAMES

For what many people now overlook is just how confident football aficionados were of establishing the game alongside baseball's World Series, American Football's Superbowl and basketball's NBA finals in Pele's day.

At the time the mantra went along these lines: bring in big names like Pele, Franz Beckenbauer and George Best and the crowds will flock in and become hooked on football.

Once the new fan base was established, they believed, the United States could start to develop its own players and become a real force in the world game.

At its peak, the New York Cosmos regularly attracted crowds of 50,000, and its record attendance was over 70,000. But by 1984 the dream was over. The North American Soccer League had collapsed.

FIFA, world football's governing body, aware of the vast potential income that lay dormant in the United States was desperate to give the game there a boost and so in 1988 awarded the World Cup finals of 1994 to the land of baseball, grid-iron, Elvis and hot dogs.

US LEGACY

No matter what spin the game's rulers tried to put on those finals, football again failed to take significant root at the highest level.

The legacy from USA 94 is that football is now a healthy vibrant sport for women and children in the United States -- but outside the long-established, closely defined ethnic areas, it has made little inroads in US culture.

The MLS, established in the mid-1990s has produced some good players, skilled enough to play at the highest level in Europe, and the US has played in the last five World Cup finals.

But its own finals of 1994 really illustrate football's place in American thinking.

Those finals were actually played in a sort of "soccer-bubblewrap". Around the stadiums, of course, thousands knew the matches were on and because of the size of the American arenas, the crowds at that World Cup were the biggest on record.

But two or three miles from where the games were being played, American life went on as normal and few had any idea any football was even being played.

SHOWBIZ STYLE

Beckham and his celebrity wife Victoria "Posh Spice" Adams, will no doubt fit easily into the showbiz, celebrity lifestyle of Hollywood and Los Angeles, and Becks, re-christened "Bucks" by tabloids on Friday, is being paid tens of millions of dollars to evangelise about the game around the country.

Whether the Americans will listen to his message is uncertain.

When football in England and Europe was struggling with serious hooliganism and out-dated stadiums in the 1980s and early nineties, the NFL set up a franchised gridiron league with teams in Europe: the London Monarchs, the Barcelona Dragons, the Frankfurt Galaxy, among others.

The NFL saw an opening to establish their game beyond its natural boundaries but their experience mirrored that of top-class football in the U.S: initial huge crowds captivated by the newest show in town, quickly dwindling away leaving a low-level localised league in its wake.

Beckham's good looks, natural charm and still superb skills on the pitch are all likely to make him huge in the United States.

If he can do the same for his sport, it might even bring a permanent smile to old Striker's face.