You have to hand it to David Beckham; he's a PR dream. Knowing exactly the right thing to say about earning his 100th cap overseas tonight rather than at Wembley, Becks endeared himself to his hosts here by gushing: "People are saying it's shame I'm not earning the honour at home but I'm playing against one of the best teams in the world - in a city that I love!"

Parisians will enjoy the compliment because they go bundles for a good style icon and Beckham is the perfect representative of today's footballing chic. Yet they appreciate substance rather more and would never swap England's ton-up boy for their magnifique stand-in captain, who tonight moves serenely on to 138 not out.

Lilian Thuram racked up his century four years ago, oddly enough against England in Les Bleus' 2-1 win at the same Stade de France where Beckham will be feted tonight.

The Englishman sees 100 as a mere staging post, not a finishing milestone; Thuram felt the same and is now in line to beat Lothar Matthaus's European record of 150 national team caps for Germany.

There, though, any remote similarity ends between these two centurions. Firstly, there's the little matter of achievement. In French blue, Barcelona's peerless 36-year-old Thuram has won one World Cup, been finallist in another, landed a European Championship and a Confederations' Cup. In England white, Beckham has won sweet FA.

Beyond that, though, here are two men representing polar opposites in their respective countries. Both are far more than mere footballers but whereas in England, it is impossible to separate Beckham's extraordinary popularity from his almost symbolic place in a shallow, bland celebrity culture, Thuram has used his fame in France as a vehicle to become an articulate social commentator, controversial scourge of politicians and a fearless people's champion. "When he speaks, France listens," a journalist here assured me.

All of which is not to denigrate Beckham, who's only one of countless players whirling around in football's celebrity froth. Rather, it's to reinforce just what an incredible one-off the champion from the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe has been, a serious player both on and away from the pitch.

Racism in football? Thuram doesn't just pay lip service to the fight; at Parma, against the club's advice, he once risked his own safety by personally confronting fans. When he's criticising those he believes to be offenders, he won't hide behind platitudes; to him Marco Materazzi, the Italian who tipped Zinedine Zidane over the edge in the World Cup Final, is "a sickness in the game".

When he confronts what he sees as social injustice, he'll do anything unashamedly to highlight it, just as when he invited 70 black African refugees who'd been kicked out of a squalid Parisian squat to attend the Euro 2008 qualifier against Italy.

To such disadvantaged immigrants, like those he grew up with on a tough Parisian estate, Thuram is an idol for so much more than scoring the immortal double in the 1998 World Cup semi-final against Croatia - extraordinarily, the only two goals of his 14-year international career - which paved the way for France's eventual triumph.

No, the member of the Legion d'Honneur, France's highest civilian order, became their true hero later amid the French inner city riots when he challenged the assertion of Nicolas Sarkozy, then the interior minister, that the protestors were "scum" and responded with the now celebrated declaration: "If they are scum, so am I".

He took on Sarkozy in the build-up to the Presidential election, insisting "his rhetoric isn't quasi-racist, it is racist". Ultimately, Thuram lost as Sarkozy won his election and an uneasy truce between the pair has followed.

Yet even though there are those who see Thuram as a rabble rouser in designer specs, it seems generally that nationwide respect for a crusading footballer with a social conscience only grows apace. Especially when his compatriots see this doting family man, for instance, spending his close season in war-torn Liberia promoting peace initiatives.

Football still does its bit to enhance that halo effect. Thuram has slowed down and is increasingly a bit part player at Barca who may release him in June. Yet, freakishly, whenever he dons his country's blue, he somehow still gives a passable impression of being what he once was - the best defender on the planet.

It's why coach Raymond Domenech press ganged him out of retirement and why injured captain Patrick Vieira, who hands over the armband tonight, says of Thuram: "When he plays as he can, you feel you're indestructible".

It's why Thuram can shrug: "There's no reason for me to stop. Logically, Euro 2008 should be my last big competition but you never know. For 2010, count on me!"

Ah, that unquenchable footballing ambition; maybe a glittering Hollywood socialite and a bespectacled Parisian socialist aren't so very different after all.