Mike Celizic

So far, they are only whispers in the tabloid press, but experience says that where there is tabloid smoke, there’s also usually fire. So you have to take seriously the reports that David Beckham, Major League Soccer's $250 million man, wants to escape from L.A.

Those who say they didn’t see this coming could use corrective lenses. Bringing the soccer celebrity to the United States to play in what is by world standards a minor league never made sense. One superstar does not a league make, especially one who is more famous in this country for being famous — you know, like Paris Hilton — than for what he can do on a soccer field.

And if the guy comes over here and realizes he doesn’t like his new job, his new city, and his new country and starts making noises about wanting out, what you’ve got is a public-relations disaster for a league that barely registers on America's consciousness.

The league signed this huge international star, and everybody was talking about it. And now, a year later, he wants to leave? What does that say about the MLS? And by the way, what exactly is the MLS?

Ask some average Americans what position Derek Jeter, Peyton Manning, and Shaquille O’Neal play, and I’m guessing a good number will be able to tell you. Ask them what position Beckham plays, and they won’t have a clue.

Then ask your focus group what team he plays for. And if they know it’s the L.A. Galaxy, ask them to name three other teams in the MLS. Odds are they won’t know even two.

They’re more likely to know that Beckham’s married to Victoria, a.k.a. Posh Spice, and that they are couple pals with the Sultan of Scientology, Tom Cruise, and his wife, Katie Holmes.

This isn’t an idle claim. I did the experiment and that’s what I got.

Celebrity is a wonderful thing for sports, but not if nobody except the game’s true believers know what an athlete is famous for. And because Beckham’s genius is in his ability to set up goals that are scored by others, it’s hard for a non-fan to tune into a game and appreciate what he does.

In Great Britain and Europe, people appreciate Beckham for his soccer. Here, professional soccer’s limited audience filled stadiums last year to watch him play — or, more often, to stand on the sideline nursing his injuries.

Beckham created enormous buzz and headlines when he signed with the Galaxy last year. He sold out games wherever the Galaxy played and got MLS highlights on SportsCenter.

But the buzz was about him and his pop-star wife, not about soccer. Worse for Beckham, according to the gossip mongers, is that other than Cruise and Holmes, who angered her friend Victoria by dissing her new tattoo, the Hollywood filmocracy hasn’t embraced the Beckhams. They are, it is said, lonely and pining for merry old England.

Meanwhile, the Galaxy is preparing for the coming MLS season. The team just finished a swing through Korea and China to play three exhibitions, and there has to be some alarm at the level of disinterest in the team and Beckham. The final game of the tour, played in Hong Kong, drew a reported 11,000 fans — small even by pre-Beckham MLS standards.

Season tickets and individual game tickets are still available on the Galaxy Web site, so it remains to be seen what effect he’ll have on the box office this year. My guess is as the novelty wears off, attendance will, too. And regardless of what he does for attendance on the road, once the Galaxy leave and another team moves in, audiences will sink back to their normally modest levels.

Slide show Life of Becks Top images of the life on and off the soccer field for England superstar David Beckham. more photos

Beckham has probably noticed that he’s like a world-famous concert pianist who takes a job in a piano bar because he can make more money. He’ll still be a celebrity, but he won’t matter any more as a musician.

Playing for the L.A. Galaxy is not like playing for Real Madrid or Manchester United. Even if he leads the Galaxy to a championship, the accomplishment will be dismissed as meaningless in countries where soccer matters.

Yes, he has a ton of money, but he reportedly doesn’t have a lot of friends, and he’s playing for what the world considers an unimportant league in which the minimum salary is $10,000. In other words, for many players in the league, soccer isn’t a career, it’s a part-time job.

The MLS didn’t need him to start with, but now that it has him, the league can ill-afford to see him run off after a year. It probably also can’t afford to keep him.

Weigh in on hot sports topics Beckham will make soccer a major U.S. sport

Neither he nor the league may have a choice. To get out of that contract, Beckham would have to find a real soccer team that will buy him out, and it’s possible that a 32-year-old playmaker who’s starting to break down isn’t worth that much money on the open market. Meanwhile, the actual value of the contract is shrinking daily along with the value of the American dollar.

No matter how you look at this, it’s not going to end nicely. Either Beckham gets a new deal — payable in Euros or Pounds Sterling, or he stays and becomes a disgruntled superstar, frequently injured, no longer a gate attraction, and an albatross around the collective neck of Major Soccer League.

They should have seen it coming.

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