Soccer madness -- Mr. Beckham goes to Spain.

It's the Fourth of July weekend and I could be talking about the baseball pennant races, since we are in the midway point of the season.

I could mention that hockey training camps open up in September or that football training camps open up a month before that.

But, I'm not going to.

Instead, I'm going to talk about a phenomenon that I, as a sports loving American female, really don't have a clue about.

In the USA it's called soccer. But, to the rest of the world, it's called football.

Call me crazy, but every time I see a soccer match on Spanish language television, the army is usually called out to quiet the mob down.

And this is the world's most popular sport -- go figure.

The biggest star in the soccer world today is David Beckham, formally of Manchester United and better known around these parts as "Posh Spice's husband."

He signed recently to play for the Real Madrid soccer club in Spain for $40 million.

If you're like me and you just don't get the concept, let me try to explain it.

Let's say Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal left the LA Lakers for the megabucks paid out by Mark Cuban in Dallas or the Maloof Brothers in Sacramento.

However popular Beckham is, I'd be willing to bet the house on it, that if it were Shaq or Kobe, there wouldn't be 500 journalists covering their physicals at a clinic (and, no, I'm not making this up).

Yes, there were 500 reporters covering Beckhams' physical in Spain -- and it was televised on Spanish television.

Like me, you're probably thinking to yourself, "those Europeans have lost their ever loving minds!"

Granted, "Becks," as he is known throughout the soccer world, which doesn't seem to include the USA or Canada, is the greatest thing in soccer since pita bread.

People want to see him, they want to shake his hand, little kids want to play soccer just like him -- and he's rich.

He's handsome -- okay, forget the other qualities, I've got to give him "major props" in the looks department.

How many other athletes do you know that have movies named after the way they play their sport?

Can you see Steven Spielberg making a movie called, "Slam it like Sammy" or "Pitch it Like Pedro?"

Or, how about the ever popular, "Dunk it Like Duncan?"

I can't either. But in the rest of the world, and in some neighborhoods here in the USA where soccer is "king," the movie "Bend it Like Beckham" is hotter than a firecracker on the Fourth of July.

The USA is getting ready to throw a big party for it's birthday.

Meanwhile, the rest of the world can't wait until Real Madrid comes to play.

Madrid will never be the same now that Mr. Beckham has come to town.