David Beckham's career in football is the sort of script Hollywood would love to make into one of their blockbusters.

One-time young gun, now ageing superstar, goes back to the place it all began to take on the star-maker in the greatest club competition of them all.

Or put another way: Beckham, OBE, former England captain, one of the most famous footballers ever to walk the planet v Sir Alex Ferguson, knight of the realm and the greatest manager in British football.

It is the stuff of the big screen and it all becomes reality when Beckham returns to Old Trafford in February with AC Milan to try to knock his old club Manchester United out of the Champions League.

It is difficult to imagine a sexier draw in the last 16, even with Jose Mourinho, the so-called 'Special One', going back to Stamford Bridge to do battle with Chelsea, the team he led to two Premier League titles.

That is guaranteed to make headlines, but even that will pale with the return of Beckham.

It is 15 years since Beckham played his first Champions League match. And guess what, he scored in a 4-0 victory at Old Trafford against Galatasaray.

No footballer, with the possible exception of George Best, has ever attracted attention quite like Beckham.

Good and bad, fame and infamy, pursue him like a heat-seeking missile.

From the red card against Argentina in Saint-Etienne in 1998, to the dressing room incident when Ferguson kicked a boot in anger and it found its target just above one of Beckham's eyebrows.

That incident was the prelude to Beckham leaving United for Real Madrid and severing ties with Ferguson, who had nurtured him as part of the talented class of fledglings which included the Neville brothers, Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt.

Ferguson was also less than pleased when he permitted Beckham to miss training to care for his sick son, only to discover Beckham's wife Victoria was photographed at a London Fashion Week event that same night.

A fine of £50,000 followed and relations darkened, with Ferguson saying: "He was never a problem until he got married."

To be fair to Beckham he has always spoken kindly of Ferguson as a "father figure" and Ferguson has always acknowledged his work ethic.

History will ensure their careers are forever intertwined.

And that is why Ferguson must have experienced just a frisson of apprehension on hearing the name AC Milan, who Beckham joins for his second loan spell from LA Galaxy next month, come out of the draw.

Ferguson knows the stats better than anyone. Beckham made 265 Premier League appearances for United and scored 61 goals, winning six Premier League titles, two FA Cups, one European Cup, one Intercontinental Cup, and one FA Youth Cup in the space of 12 years

He also made 81 Champions League appearances, scoring 15 goals.

The most amazing things tend to occur when the boy, now from Beverly Hills, is about.