Soccer: the best thing for sleep since pillows — those were the words of fabled sportswriter Jimmy Cannon, back in 1967. He was greeting the news that a national professional league was about to be formed.

For sure, the sport has never been short of colorful detractors in the American press. Yesterday, I saw a headline proclaiming that “a tidal wave of apathy” is greeting David Beckham’s signing for Major League Soccer. I also read that “soccer is a sport for kids, immigrants, and progressive weirdos.”

Those potshots span 40 years, and the most interesting thing about them is that soccer is still around and is stronger — certainly in terms of the number of American kids playing — than it has ever been.

Apathy? The Beckham story has been everywhere, a prominent feature on television news and a front page item in virtually every major American newspaper. If the signing were designed only to get exposure for MLS, then it has been a huge success. But the current frenzy will die down soon enough, and it has been built largely around Beckham’s “global icon” image anyway, not the sport itself.

What then of Beckham’s avowed aim of helping American soccer? To make the sport as popular here as it is in the rest of the world is the “new challenge” that Beckham identified as one of the prime reasons for his decision to leave Real Madrid.

In 1975, Pelé arrived in New York to a similar explosion of interest, and with the identical purpose: to kick-start the pro game in America. Pelé proved something of a mixed blessing. Yes, he did add recognition and quality to the North American Soccer League. But there are many who believe that the league’s downfall (it folded in 1984) started with Pelé’s arrival, as the big money spent by the Cosmos to lure him to New York set off a spending spiral among the other clubs that eventually led to a bankrupt league.

Pelé did what he was signed to do: He gave the NASL credibility throughout the rest of the world, and he made it acceptable for other top players to join what had been seen until then as a laughably second-rate league. Top players arrived — Franz Beckenbauer, George Best, Carlos Alberto, Johan Cruyff, and others — but the money spent on them doomed the NASL.

That scenario haunts the vision of the MLS leaders. It will not be repeated, they insist, because the single-entity structure of MLS, with its rigid salary caps, will prevent it. Quite possibly that is true, because MLS will allow a maximum of only 13 designated players (those who, like Beckham, are outside the salary cap rules) in the league, with not more than two a club.

The problem for MLS — and it is a huge problem — lies less with limiting the superstars, than in finding enough regular players good enough to play alongside them. The day after the Beckham signing last week, MLS held its annual “SuperDraft.” But there was absolutely nothing “super” about any of the 52 players who were drafted. They are virtually all college players, mostly unknowns, hoping to break into the pro game. Their chances of making an impact are low. There is a yawning gap between the caliber of the college game and the pros.

The preponderance of collegetrained players in MLS is largely responsible for the league’s lack of sparkle, for its unacceptably mediocre level of play.

The Los Angeles Galaxy — the team that Beckham will join —was a poor team last season. Coach Frank Yallop has his work cut out to improve its quality, to bring in players who can, so to speak, support Beckham in the style to which he is accustomed.

Beckham is not, never was, the greatest player in the world. But he should be the best player in MLS. Whether a modest supporting cast will allow him that status is debatable. Beckham has been primarily used throughout his career as a right midfielder, but Yallop has already stated that he will play Beckham as a central midfielder. That is a no-brainer, because your milliondollar signing has to be at the center of the action as much as possible.

It will mean that Beckham will have to become much more of an all-round playmaker, and not merely a provider of dangerous crosses from the right flank. It should also mean — according to the tenets of the modern game — that Beckham will be expected to do a lot more defensive work. Yallop has already praised Beckham’s “work rate,” but it remains to be seen whether the 31-year-old Beckham’s idea of a new challenge includes more running than ever.

And of course, things will not be made easy on the field for Beckham. It is inconceivable that his opponents — who will include many players of limited and crude, often dangerously crude, tackling skills — will want to treat him with kid gloves.

Not least because Beckham’s estimated $1 million weekly paycheck is 20 times greater than many those guys are earning in a year.

The idea — it will be promoted, you can be sure — that Beckham is just another player once the game starts, is ludicrous. Everyone will be conscious of his presence, including the referees who will no doubt soon be accused of protecting him from harsh tackling.

Will Beckham’s presence attract other top players? There has been just one sign so far that this may be so. FC Dallas coach Steve Morrow announced that the club may sign Edgar Davids, a Dutch World Cup midfielder, currently on the books of England’s Tottenham Hotspur. A rather unfortunate beginning. Davids, a 33-year-old known for his hard tackling, is not a player to add artistry or skill or glamour to the league.

It would be unfair to blame Beckham for choices made by MLS coaches, but there is one crucial area of the game where Beckham can have a direct effect, where he can decisively help American soccer. That of player development.

His involvement in this area has been under way for over a year with his David Beckham Academy in Los Angeles, which aims “to provide excellence in pursuit of development” for children ages 8 to 15.

Sadly, this has to be seen primarily as a money-making operation. A three-day session at the academy costs $375. A five-day residential course comes to $995. Those are figures that will effectively exclude low-income, urban children. And there will be no real forward movement in player development in this country until those kids are brought into the mix.

pgardner@nysun.com