KEY POINTS:
The number of hits that pop up when a name is typed into Google is often a measure of a person's fame.
The ubiquitous David Beckham, who will grace these shores for the second time next week, registers 15.6 million in a stupefyingly quick 0.05 seconds.
Nelson Sale,
the Solomon Islands and Auckland City defender who will line up against the world's most famous footballer for the Oceania All Stars XI, comes in with a very respectable 11.5 million.
But as much as he might like them to be, they're not all about the shy, slightly-built footballer.
There's the three-bedroom brick and tile home that's on the market in Richmond, near Nelson, as well as the Ford Falcon going cheaply at a Nelson used car lot and the chihuahua hopeful of finding a good home.
Sale does make it occasionally on Google in team line-ups but they are rare and brief appearances on the world wide web.
It's fair to say the difference between the lives of Beckham and Sale is as great as the difference between Beverly Hills and Honiara.
David Robert Joseph Beckham's story is well known. Born in Leytonstone in London, this son of a kitchen fitter and hairdresser became known the world over for his exploits with Manchester United, Real Madrid, Los Angeles Galaxy and England.
Throw in the Spice Girl wife, the movie appearances, the insatiable appetite of the tabloids, the countless magazine cover shoots and his own comfort with his metrosexuality and you have an individual rated by Forbes magazine as No 15 on their 2007 list of top 100 celebrities.
Sale might rate in the top 15 of famous people from his village.
He is afforded hero status whenever he returns to his homeland and he and countrymen Alick Maemae, Judd Molea and Henry Fa'arodo will be the talk of the nation when they line up for the Oceania All Stars XI against Beckham and his LA Galaxy at Mt Smart Stadium on Saturday night.
"Everyone in the Solomons will watch it on TV," Sale says through an interpreter in pidgin English.
"People will finish work early. The country will stop to watch it. It is a big deal for me."
And it's easy to see why when you consider his background.
Sale did not see Beckham play until the World Cup in 2002, when he moved to Honiara. There was no electricity in his home village, let alone a TV. The 22-year-old grew up in a leaf house in a small village in the province of Malaita. There was also no running water - they had to paddle across a lagoon to find fresh water.
But they had football.
It was not exactly football as Beckham knows it. Games were played on the beach at low tide before and after school or on a grass field with sticks for goalposts. Throw-ins were only necessary if the ball went into the nearby bush.
Football for Sale got more serious when he moved to Honiara at 15 to go to secondary school. For his family, it was about a better education. For Sale, it was about a higher standard of football and a chance to take his game as far as he could.
He was soon selected for the Honiara under-16 side, after which schooling took a back seat. He was then picked for national age group sides.
Sale was brought to New Zealand by YoungHeart Manawatu and played under Shane Rufer and Colin Tuaa before transferring to Auckland City for the start of the current NZFC season.
He has played in big games before, such as his country's 2-2 draw with Australia at the 2004 Oceania Nations Cup. He also captained the Solomon Islands team that tried to qualify for the Beijing Olympics.
But Saturday night looms as arguably Sale's biggest. It will be a game involving the biggest name in the sport as well as his biggest audience.
A quiet individual, Sale's not likely to waltz up to Beckham and introduce himself. "I would love to meet him and get the chance to take a photo with him," he says quietly. "I'm looking forward to the team handshakes."
There are a smattering of footballers who will put the star into all-star for the Oceania team, most notably French World Cup winner Christian Karembeu, Dutch midfielder Edgar Davids and controversial Australian goalkeeper Mark Bosnich.
There will also be a handful of New Zealanders such as Ivan Vicelich,
Jarrod Smith and Jacob Spoonley but the bulk will be made up of the best players from the Pacific Islands.
There's a good reason for this. The Oceania Football Confederation hope to prove to Australian officials that it is a team that could compete successfully in the A-League.
It's a long shot, particularly as Australian bidders line up in the hope of joining the A-League, but a shot worth taking.
If they did join the league, you could expect Sale to be involved and then he might have a few more legitimate Google entries.