KEY POINTS:
As the David Beckham circus rolls through town there is an intriguing sideshow largely unseen by the crowd. At the age of 33 - and undoubtedly well into the autumn of his career - Beckham is about to take one of the biggest gambles of his footballing life.
One month after Saturday's game at Mt Smart Stadium, the poster-boy of the world's most popular game will take his multi-millionaire brand to Italian soccer giants AC Milan on a three-month loan from his US employers in Los Angeles. What happens over those three months could prove a watershed - success could see Beckham welcomed back to the England fold to realise his ambition to play in the 2010 World Cup for his national team. Anything
less and he faces life as a celebrated footnote in the annals of football history.
It is a strange time for such a gamble.
Beckham has played more than 530 competitive matches, for Manchester United, England, Real Madrid and LA Galaxy, scoring 99 goals. He has also evolved from footballer to booming industry.
His non-football earnings are estimated to be as much as $60 million a year, largely from sponsorship deals from corporates eager to associate their product with the Beckham brand.
Giants including Vodafone, adidas, Gilette and Pepsi have all placed one of the world's most recognisable sporting faces alongside razors, fizzy drinks, phones and sportswear.
In addition he earns some $900,000 each month from LA Galaxy - the biggest deal signed in the American league. It's a huge amount of money, but it's not hard to see why it is still attractive for the club; crowd numbers have surged since he arrived in LA and sales of shirts bearing the Beckham name reached 300,000 in his first season, almost an 800 per cent increase on the previous year.
Quite how he got here is something Beckham probably has to ask himself from time to time.
He arrived on the football scene at a defining moment for the sport. The new English Premier League had recently been formed and vast amounts of money were being poured in by Sky Television, which had recognised the potential for a worldwide audience.
At the same time, football was becoming fashionable. The dark days of 80s hooliganism were over, stadiums had undergone myriad improvements after disasters such as the Bradford fire and the Hillsborough tragedy, and the game was being wrested from the hands of its working-class roots. Nick Hornby wrote Fever Pitch , which made it okay - even fashionable - for middle-class men to be openly obsessive about the sport.
Beckham himself, of course, also had a part to play on the pitch. He became a key player for Manchester United as the team embarked on a decade-long domination of the new Premier League. He had a unique ability to strike a free kick, a cross or a sweeping pass with pin-point accuracy.
He was also behind a moment to live in every football fan's imagination when, at 21 years old, he scored a remarkable goal from inside his own half - a feat romantics often point out was attempted and failed by the great Pele.
Off the field he was the marketer's dream, good-looking, humble and a model professional. And he became the tabloid dream when he began dating his future wife Victoria Beckham, better known at the time as "Posh" - one-fifth of the Spice Girls pop group.
He truly entered the English nation's psyche when he filled the vital role of villain at the 1998 World Cup. A petulant act saw him sent off against Argentina and subsequently blamed for England's exit from the tournament.
However, if there's one thing the English love more than a villain, it is the redemption of a fallen hero.
Four years after his red card, England were one kick away from failing to qualify for the 2002 World Cup. That kick just happened to be a 30-yard free kick which Beckham took and, inevitably, scored.
By the time he left for the US, Beckham had won the Premier League six times, the FA Cup twice, the European Champions League and the Spanish title La Liga with Real Madrid.
Few could forgive Beckham these days for sitting back and enjoying the ride.
And yet he will join up with AC Milan on January 7.
It's a win-win for the Italian club which can enjoy Beckham's pulling power for three months. It's a win-win for the LA Galaxy which can enjoy the knowledge that Beckham will stay fit and in a high-profile window during the American off-season.
It's a win-win for England manager Fabio Capello as he will get a definitive answer as to whether Beckham can still cut it at the highest level.
The only possible loser is Beckham. If his ageing deficiencies are exposed it will draw the curtain on his England career and from there his star can only begin to lose its shine. Beckham has to be admired for such a gamble and there can be no doubt he has considered and carefully weighed the consequences.
By yesterday afternoon 15,000 tickets had been sold to tomorrow night's piece of sporting theatre. Those there will no doubt see Beckham perform his tricks. If his Italian gamble pays off, he may be on the verge of pulling off the greatest trick of his career.
