Irish soccer star Robbie Keane signed a deal last week to join the LA Galaxy soccer club for $8 million, where he’ll play alongside David Beckham, who made the same leap across the Atlantic (for waaaaaay more dollars) a few years back.

But what of Keane’s wife, Claudine? Will she be the shy, retiring type who wilts under the LA sun and pines for the dampness in her native Dublin?  Will she recoil at the challenge of watching a Galaxy game in the same family box with the Queen Bee Victoria Beckham?

Uh, hardly, as you might be able to tell from our photo.  Claudine is 10 years younger, blonder, skinner and can preen for a camera every bit as well as Posh can.  Why, Claudine even knows how to smile unlike the stone-faced Posh, currently on maternity leave from the paparazzi but sure to eventually roar back with a vengeance now that there’s a new WAG (member of the wives and girlfriends club) on the scene.

Claudine, 27, and her hubby took a first class flight from London to LAX last week, and already she’s got the camera ready recipe down flat – board the plane in a tracksuit and sneakers, and then depart 10 hours later in killer Louboutin heels, skinny jeans, a barely there top to show off the washboard abs, and a Birkin bag to show that she has indeed been keeping up with the Kardashians.

Claudine – a model at home and in the U.K., of course – was all ready for the waiting paparazzi at the airport, smiling and posing and looking for all the world like she died and went to heaven. Dublin Airport was never like this!

While Robbie got acquainted with his new teammates and got down to the actual business of playing – he even scored a goal in his debut – Claudine had to make do with pampering at the Ritz Hotel and shopping.  Tough life.

The Irish papers are agog now that they’ve got their own homegrown version of Posh and Becks, and they’re dutifully reporting on the couple’s every move, and where they might eventually purchase some LA real estate. Beverly Hills, near the Beckhams, of course, seems to be the favored locale.

Meanwhile, you know you’ve arrived in Hollywood if the penultimate gossip website, TMZ, puts you on its radar, and that’s what’s happened with Claudine.  A few days ago it showed bikini shots of Posh and Claudine under the headline “Who’d You Rather?” inviting readers to cast a vote. Claudine won with 58%.  Nothing like being the new blond on the block!