More than 300 players will be involved in Euro 2004 but only one of them, David Beckham, will combine the roles of international footballer, fashion icon and heart-throb.

Beckham's move from Manchester United, the club he had supported since he was a boy, to Real Madrid has only broadened the appeal of the 28-year-old in all three areas.

Though some pundits and Real fans were sceptical of the England captain's presence in the famous all-white strip, Beckham needed less than three months to convince people in the Spanish capital that 35 million euros ($41.22 million) had been sensibly invested in the London-born player.

On the international front, England also hope to reap the benefits of Beckham's spell with the most successful club and the most envied starting XI in world football.

Beckham and Michael Owen are already the two most important players in Sven-Goran Eriksson's squad.

Owen provides the goals, along with a somewhat worrying statistic that England have not won a game since the end of Euro 2000 without the Liverpool striker being on the field.

But Beckham also provides goals -- five in the seven Euro qualifiers he played -- and, more importantly, his naked desire to succeed enables him to lift a struggling team single-handed.

His trademark free-kick equaliser against Greece, which booked England into the 2002 World Cup, was not just a superb piece of skill but a reward for a dogged afternoon of tireless running, tackling and tracking back by the England captain.

Hamstrung at the 2002 finals by his slow recovery from a broken foot, Beckham will be key to England's hopes of progress at Euro 2004 and selling even more number 7 England shirts around the world.

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