When Beckham finally did start for the first time last Wednesday, what the public likely didn’t notice was that by simply playing extended minutes for the first time, Becks became one of the guys.

“When he’s on the field with you and he’s helping you and contributing, then you look at him in a different way and he looks at us in a different way,” Landon Donovan said. “Not that we didn’t respect him before, but now there’s so much more respect.”

The air of mystery about Beckham’s ankle and the amount of time he spent rehabbing it during his first month had created an unintentional distance between him and his new teammates. He was reluctant to take a leadership role and tell others what to do when he had yet to play much.

That changed last week when Donovan and Beckham chatted while walking to their cars after practice. Donovan, the Galaxy’s biggest star until Beckham arrived, offered his captain’s armband to Beckham.

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“It made him immediately part of the team in a real sense,” Donovan said. “Guys looked at him differently and he could say things to guys differently.”

Beckham’s new influence apparently extends to his teammates’ fashion choices. Like him, several of them have dressed in black suits, white shirts and red ties after recent games.

Having the world’s most famous soccer player suddenly dropped in their midst has been “an eye-opener” for the team, Vagenas said.

“His being here puts us on the world stage. Every little game that we play, every little thing that you do truly means something,” the midfielder said. “You’re in the pressure cooker, so you’ve got to perform.”

No one more so than Beckham.

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