As David Beckham looked over the spectacular crescent-shaped beach with its golden sands, turquoise sea and palm trees swaying in the warm breeze, he had one foot in the future. The site of his Brazilian academy is not a bad investment for whenever he has to face up to the end of his playing career.

In England terms, we will know much more later today when Fabio Capello announces his international squad - although a rejection is not expected to be terminal. Whatever the Italian’s decision, no one will be able to accuse Beckham of failing to plan for the day he eventually hangs up his boots.

There was the recent trip to Sierra Leone with Unicef. There are the expectations that he will be invited by Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, to be an ambassador for England’s 2018 World Cup bid. This week, there was the launch of the Beckham “World of Soccer” on a stretch of paradise in northeast Brazil. It felt a long way from Leytonstone. It leads many to conclude that Beckham has been too quick to embrace a life beyond football. It may be true, but when Steve McClaren was England head coach, Beckham was led to believe that he had no international career.

Whenever the end comes, and expect a few more twists yet, it will be some time before the global brand is diminished. Pursued by paparazzi, protected by police outriders, Beckham was the centre of attention in Brazil this week, even if his academy is only a small part of the vast Cabo São Roque development in which 3,500 acres of stunning beaches, dunes, forests and lakes will be transformed into a holiday resort and training camp for elite teams, a giant La Manga in South America. Perhaps England’s base for the World Cup finals in 2014.

According to the press release, Nasa, the space agency, has rated the air in the region the second cleanest in the world after Antarctica. Let us hope that it stays that way once the bulldozers, cranes and chainsaws arrive.

There will be a new airport, bridges and roads to make it accessible. A school and a new hospital for the local residents have been promised. The nearby villagers have been told that their houses will be painted so that there are no eyesores for the invading tourists. Understandably, there are concerns at this transformation of an area of magical, uncrowded beauty. A Brazilian journalist tried to ask Beckham about the environmental effects, but the question was intercepted. A spokesman for the development stepped in to insist that every displaced tree will be replanted.

Backed by the AEG Anschutz group in London and Los Angeles, Beckham has teamed up with the Norwegian Frantzen brothers, owners of the Findus food company, for the Brazilian project. It is a relationship that will result in Beckham’s academies endorsing a Findus fish-oil supplement. The nature of the financial arrangement is not known, but Beckham has marked out his territory for a house overlooking the beach.

The World of Sport, with its eight pitches, training facilities and 10,000-capacity stadium, will be a base for clubs and national teams to come in preseason or midwinter. But Beckham’s main interest is what it can bring to the youth of the region.

He explained that he would be bringing in children from local schools, as he has done in London, where 20,000 children have been through the academy doors for free coaching in the past two years. The area around Natal, on the northeast tip of Brazil, is not full of urban slums, such as Rio de Janeiro or São Paulo, but nor is it a place where you find too many Astroturf pitches.

It was inevitable that one of the locals should demand to know how an Englishman could expect to teach the Brazilians to play football. Beckham said that he had not come to preach skills. “I’m not here to teach Brazilian kids to play football,” he said. “It is about giving them a chance in life. Giving them an opportunity to play somewhere safe with good facilities.

“The first time I came over to Rio with Manchester United, we went on to one of the beaches and played head tennis with some of the locals. They are so talented it’s ridiculous.”

He can provide the coaching and the “world-class facilities”, but it may be the local children teaching him the juggling tricks.

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