The matches failed to live up to none of the hype -- Match of the Millennium, predicted some -- but, mercifully, the crowds were also apparently deadened into quiescence.

Beckham, in fact, could benefit the most from England's success in the short term. Football writers and coaches throughout the continent will, next month, vote for the European Footballer of the Year. There are four front-runners in the fray: Beckham, Rivaldo, Andrei Shevchenko and Christian Vieri.

Chances are that the last award of the millennium will go to a creator rather than a finisher, which leaves the first two in the list. Rivaldo may be the more complete player, and may even be the best footballer in the world right now, but Beckham's case is immeasurablystrengthened by the character he has shown in bouncing back from the ignominy of World Cup 98.

Incidentally, the last Englishman to win the award was Kevin Keegan, in the late 70s and early 80s. He hasn't been back to the awards ceremony since, but has pledged to if Beckham wins. Meanwhile, he has other matters to attend to.

Forget England-Scotland '99. Readers of top English footer magazine Shoot have voted the 1999 Champions League Final (Man United vs Bayern Munich) as the best match of the millennium. Apart from the sheer scope of the poll's ambit (it doesn't, thankfully, take into account matches played in, say, AD 999), public memory does appear to be short term.

Forget the runner-up, the 1966 World Cup final (won by, of course, England). Does anyone remember the France-Germany match of 1982 or the World Cup final of 1970 (in which Brazil showed exactly what football was all about)?

Meanwhile, e-mail your choice for Match of the Century (let's be modest here) to On the Ball. The mostoriginal entry will be printed (and please let's keep Fantasy League out of this)

Checklist

Tosh Turfed out: Real Madrid have finally sacked manager John Toshack after just a few months in the job. Tosh, a Liverpool star in the 1970s, saw his team stumble from one disappointing result to another. He added fuel to the fire by ignoring $35-million signing Nicholas Anelka, and the end was inevitable. That puts the future of Mark Hghes in jeopardy, though; the veteran Southampton striker was hoping to be confirmed as Wales national team manager but with Tosh, an old hand, in the reckoning his chances have dimmed.

Footer on Film: This week saw the premiere of the movie The Cup. Not another footer movie, you say. Well, it's a bit different. After all, how many footer movies (in fact, how many movies period) have been directed by a Buddhist monk? The Cup's diretor, Khyentse Norbu, is a 38-year-old monk, a third-generation reinarnation of a 19th-century saint. The movie deals with agroup of monks in a monastery in northern India who go to all lengths to watch the 1998 World Cup.

Jayaditya Gupta can be contacted at: joygupta@express2.indexp.co.in