By Grant Wahl, SI.com

	By kick-starting his game, Beckham regained the support of Madrid fans and teammates as well as a spot on the national team. FotoSports/WireImage.com

As Fuller puts it, "If you have most things you want in life, you can take it easy, you can retire, you can continue to take money off a team in Europe. But our ambition is bigger than that. Shoot for the stars, and if you don't hit them, then it was fun trying.

"If you do hit them, then you've made history."

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When Beckham first takes the field for the Galaxy -- most likely in a friendly against England's Chelsea FC on July 21 at the Home Depot Center -- he'll carry a raft of expectations, many of which he's already trying to dispel. To wit, he's not going to L.A. to join his pal Tom Cruise on the silver screen. ("Acting is never something I've been interested in," says Beckham, who won't be appearing in the NBC reality show starring Victoria, a.k.a. Posh Spice.) He's not likely to score three goals a game. ("That's one thing I'm worried about," he admits, "because people probably do think they're going to see me turn out, and we'll win our first game 10-nil.") And he's not crossing the Atlantic simply to be a marketing tool. (Though his signature cologne, Instinct, is available in many fine drugstores.)

"It's not a big brand thing," Beckham insists. "It's about me being the ambassador for MLS. If I can make people more aware and make kids realize that you can go into higher levels and make a great living from playing soccer, that's what I'm going over there to do."

The soccer-savvy audience knows that Beckham isn't fast, rarely uses his head or his left foot and won't win games by himself. But the skills he has are wondrous: a quarterback's vision, a conductor's mastery of tempo and a right foot that can hit 40-yard passes on a dime. "I'm not a player who will run past 10 players and score three or four goals," Beckham says. "My game is about working hard, being a team player and assists." And, of course, those glorious, swerving free kicks, dramatic set pieces tailor-made for American attention spans, YouTube clips and highlight packages.

Let's make one thing clear: Beckham can still play. When he stunned the world by signing with the Galaxy last January, European cynics wrote him off as irrelevant to the sport's highest levels, a de facto retiree settling for easy money in a backwater league. Beckham's career with the national team, which he once captained, appeared over -- new coach Steve McClaren had dropped him after last year's World Cup -- and his coach at Real Madrid, Fabio Capello, announced he would never play for the club again. "David Beckham will be a B-list actor living in Hollywood," sniffed Madrid president Ramón Calderón.