ONE of the joys of football is that it breaks down boundaries. In a couple of weeks, "Mist-aah Beck-ham" has done more to unite the Japanese and English than was achieved in each of the 57 years since the end of the Second World War.

Back home, springboarding from the jubilee celebrations, the Cross of St George has been reclaimed as the symbol of all England. It is a joy to see the flag fluttering from car aerials, hanging from workmen's ladders and billowing out of bedroom windows.

It is ironic that the Cross of St George should once have been the preserve of the far right as the boy George himself was, if anything about him is certain, of a dark skin.

He was born in Cappadocia in Turkey about 280AD into a noble, Christian family. But when his father died, George and his mother returned to her homeland of Palestine. Aged 17, he joined the Roman Army and quickly rose to become a tribune - roughly a colonel. It was as an invader, then, that he visited England.

His big moment, though, came when he was serving in Libya. The town of Silene was being sorely vexed by a vicious dragon - a huge crocodile with large scaly wings which had taken up residence in a nearby lake. Initially, the townspeople tried to fight off the dragon, but when it ate their bravest soldiers and devoured entire armies, they tried to pacify it instead. They lobbed two sheep a day at it, and soon it had gobbled up every flock from miles around. The only edibles that they had left were themselves, and they drew lots to decide who should be sacrificed.

On the day in question, Princess Cleodolinda, the local king's daughter, had drawn the fateful lot and when George rode over the horizon on his white charger she was in the clutches of the evil serpent. But with just a single blow of his mighty lance, George slew the dragon and saved the princess.

George's downfall came when the Roman Emperor Diocletian (245-313) decided to persecute Christians. George rode to meet Diocletian in Turkey in 303 to complain about such behaviour. For his pains, George was thrown into jail, tortured, dragged through the streets and finally, on April 23, beheaded in the Palestinian town of Lydda.

His legend gradually grew on foreign fields, and in the 12th Century he miraculously appeared to help Richard the Lionheart's crusaders. They returned home to England with George as their saint, along with various bits of his body - his arm was an attraction at Canterbury for centuries - and, of course, his red cross.

George looks after farmers, Boy Scouts, horsemen and horses, plus people with skin diseases. But not footballers.

Still, if George slew the dragon, Beckham can kill off Brazil. Shakespeare certainly thought so:

"I see you stand like fans on the terraces,

Straining upon the kick-off. The game's football:

Follow the high ball; and, upon this counter-attack

Cry God for Sven, England and St George!"

* Shakespeare lived before the Taylor Report which introduced all-seater stadia.