David Beckham is fast becoming a joke.
The midfielder will do anything, it seems, to remain in the frame for a spot on the England team at the 2010 World Cup.
Forking out a few million pounds, going back on his word, what next for the 33-year-old who is already on the decline?
Last week, Beckham paid 3 million pounds from his own pocket to ensure his loan period at AC Milan was extended till the end of the Serie A season. Some may say it showed his commitment to playing his way back into the England set-up, but to me it reeks of desperation.
The other option - returning to LA Galaxy and playing in the backwater of Major League Soccer, which kicks off in the middle of this month - would spell disaster for his England hopes.
But when Beckham's loan to Milan was first announced last October, he pledged he would return to the United States in time for the start of the 2009 season.
The move to Italy, he said then, was just to keep himself fit during the MLS off-season, so he could fight for a spot in Fabio Capello's national squad.
And now, Golden Balls is reneging on his word. Becks now says he will return to the Galaxy and play for them between July and November, the second half of the season.
But the damage to his reputation has already been done.
Want more proof of the depths Beckham will plunge to to keep his England dream burning?
Last December, he claimed it was his lifelong dream to play for Milan - but this fact was curiously not in his autobiography.
'Sorry, I thought I had mentioned it,' he replied when reporters questioned him on this. 'Maybe I will write another one and I'll definitely mention it, and I'll have some pictures of me playing there too.'
These recent moves mirror the sad state of his career. His transfer from Spanish club Real Madrid to the Galaxy in 2007 was due to his pop-star wife Victoria Beckham and the lucrative payout being dangled before him.
She wanted to rub shoulders with the Hollywood elite, and the Galaxy gave him a $365 million, five year deal - the richest contract in world sport.
What's the big deal about Beckham anyway? In Theo Walcott, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Aaron Lennon, Capello has three outstanding wingers who can slot into the right midfield position, are much faster than Beckham and fitter too.
If Capello does decide he doesn't need Beckham at next year's World Cup after all - and that would be the right choice - the joke would really be on football's most over-rated player now.