Major League Soccer (MLS) must stop hyping David Beckham and start bringing in more star footballers if it is to build on the England star's initial success, according to a leading American sports industry expert.

Randy Bernstein, the founding MLS chief marketing officer, called Beckham's arrival at the Los Angeles Galaxy and his immediate impact in American sport a perfect storm but believes there is a danger of over-hyping the league's star attraction.

He believes the MLS and the Galaxy, owned by Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG), must resist the temptation to keep driving the hard-sell around Beckham. "Major League Soccer and AEG have done what they needed to do in order to structure and organise his entry into the league," Bernstein said. "They've done a tremendous job from an on-field and press perspective.

"His personal handlers will take care of what he needs to do and I think what MLS needs to do now is to not over-hype him. He doesn't need hyping any more, he just needs to live up to his expectations."

Bernstein, who was on the 1994 World Cup organising committee and worked at MLS between 1995 and 1999, is now president and CEO of Premier Partnerships, a Los Angeles-based sports and entertainment sales and marketing firm. He believes the next step for the MLS is to begin recruiting other stars from around the world to the 12 other league teams.

"MLS now needs to fulfil each of the other teams' needs to build the quality of their individual rosters in addition to the Galaxy," he said. "If you can continue to build that type of credibility and mix that together with the type of star quality of a David Beckham in some of the other teams I think that would do nothing but grow the sport in a quicker fashion."

However, football in the United States is still a long way from rivalling American staples such as baseball, basketball and gridiron. "Major League Soccer has been building a tremendous platform since day one over ten years ago but it's been a slow building process," Bernstein said. "The addition of the credibility of an athlete such as David Beckham and his charisma has put that process on the fast track. I don't think anyone's trying to be the NFL or Major League Baseball today. That's not what Major League Soccer is trying to do. It's trying to build a solid foundation as one of the top four sports in the American landscape."

That said, Bernstein believes Beckham is acting as a great driving force for the sport in the United States. "What the MLS is attempting to do and is doing a tremendous job of is gaining credibility in the general sports fan's and the soccer aficionado's thought process.

"David Beckham transcends sport, entertainment and fashion in the United States on a daily basis. I watched the Today Show, which is not a show where they talk about sports much, and they were all talking about David Beckham and about going to Giants Stadium to watch him.

"David Beckham has managed to pull soccer from the back of the sports pages to the front of the newspaper."