HE MAY have failed all his GCSEs and admitted to being baffled by his then six-year-old son’s homework, but David Beckham is poised to lecture at one of America’s oldest universities on the conundrums of global diplomacy.

When the 32-year-old footballer arrives at his new home in Los Angeles next month he will be bombarded with invitations. But the most unlikely and prestigious will come from the University of Southern California (USC). The 127-year-old university is keen to offer the city’s latest celebrity a platform from which to explain to its students how “soccer” can change the world. According to sources close to Beckham, he is keen to join the debate.

This weekend diplomats from the United Nations, the World Bank and several developing countries were travelling to the home ground of Beckham’s new team, LA Galaxy, to watch a game and speak to the star’s advisers about his potential impact.

The trip was arranged by Professor Nicholas Cull, director of USC’s Center on Public Diplomacy. Cull is organising a global seminar on the role of sport in diplomacy next year.

“David Beckham is already part of the masters course taught here, as an example of the influence of athletes, so I am hoping that he will be able to address us at that seminar,” said the British-born professor last week.

“People who don’t follow football don’t appreciate what a globally significant figure Beckham is even now with his career in transition.”

In the past Beckham has admitted he is more fluent on the field than in public speaking. He once joked: “I don’t do the talking thing very good sometimes.”

But officials at the Los Angeles office of the David Beckham Academy, which aims to create opportunities for children in football, say such nervousness could be eased with a course in public speaking. Beckham is keen to “broaden his message” about the importance of football, one executive said: “I am sure David would be very keen to talk to students about this.”

Beckham’s interest in the diplomatic power of football was prompted in part by Pele, the Brazilian striker who also played in the US and became a goodwill ambassador for Unesco. A Brazilian ambassador to the UN once said that Pele “had spent 22 years playing soccer, and in that time he has done more for goodwill and friendship than all the ambassadors ever appointed”.

Cull said the US had failed to realise the significance of the sport as an instrument of “soft power”, influencing people through culture rather than conflict. “The United States government botched an opportunity in Iraq - they set up a TV channel and then failed to broadcast the World Cup, which would have won over a lot of people to western ways,” he said.

German newspaper polls showed that fewer foreigners thought of Germany’s wartime past and more about the friendliness of its people after it hosted the World Cup.

Beckham has argued that football is much more than a mere sport: “It brings people together in hope, which is what I want to do with the academy,” he said. “It’s about physical excellence but it’s also about teamwork, working together to solve problems and celebrating together.”

When Beckham completes his five-year contact in Los Angeles, which will reportedly earn him more than £100m from playing and endorsements, he is said to want to become a “goodwill ambassador” for a UN organisation.

What his wife, the pop singer Victoria Beckham, 33, wants remains less certain. Her television aspirations have taken a knock with the disclosure that NBC has reduced a proposed reality series about the Beckhams to a single 60-minute episode. An insider said: “We hoped for some real life, but all we got on film was shopping.”

When the Beckhams arrive in Los Angeles as a couple, they are expected to be taken under the wing of their neighbour Tom Cruise. The actor has promised to organise a big party for them. In return, according to local reports, the Beckhams have reserved his family “the best box in the house” at the Galaxy football stadium for the entire first season.

Times Recommends

• Rio Tinto four held as China prepares case
• Diplomats must keep heads down and trousers up
• When in Rome should one make like Berlusconi?