 |
| |
|
 |
 |
 |
||||||||||||||||||
|
Press feasts on interest in Beckham Posted: Wednesday March 26, 2003 10:18 AMMADRID, Spain (AP) -- Spain's sports press feasted Wednesday on Real Madrid's possible targeting of Manchester United midfielder David Beckham for a summer transfer. Following a comment Tuesday by Madrid's sports director Jorge Valdano in As which hinted his club could be interested in the England midfielder, the Madrid-based paper and its rival Marca led with stories on Beckham. "Let's just say that bearing in mind the coups that Real Madrid have carried out on the transfer market in the last few years, Beckham would fit into our project," Valdano had told As on Tuesday. On Wednesday, As ran the headline "It's an honor that Madrid has noticed me" accompanied by a photograph of a smiling Beckham. The daily said that the midfielder was "beginning to feel unsettled in Manchester", adding that he was at odds with both coach Alex Ferguson and teammate Ryan Giggs. As added that United was considering Real Betis' Spanish international Joaquin Sanchez as a possible replacement. It also displayed a tactical chart which showed how Madrid could incorporate Beckham into its star-studded attack of Ronaldo, Raul Gonzalez, Luis Figo and Zinedine Zidane, saying he "would multiply Madrid's attacking options on the wing." "Do you want to play for Madrid?" asked Marca in a front-page headline, adding "Beckham gives us his reply to the big question". Inside, accompanied by an eight-photo sequence, it described the player's reaction to the question, which the paper posed at the presentation of the new England soccer shirt in London on Tuesday. "First he was surprised to hear Marca's question. He thought about it and swallowed. He started to talk with a smile on his face. He touched his face and neck," it said. The paper went on to provide Beckham's response. "Everyone knows that Madrid is a fantastic club. It's a team with great tradition and it has some brilliant players. It's an honor that Real Madrid is looking at me. But I already play in a great team, which in my view is the best in the world and where I feel at home," said Beckham, who signed a new, lucrative contract with United last year which runs to 2005. Marca also included a quote from Madrid president Florentino Perez scotching reports that talks with Beckham had begun. "No one is thinking about signing Beckham at the moment," he said. Perez, who since his election in 2000 has brought Figo, Zidane and Ronaldo to the club in successive summers, added that there was no chance that Figo would be allowed to depart in an exchange for Beckham. "Figo will never leave Madrid. He will see out his contract," he said. The Portuguese midfielder's contract runs until 2006.
|
|
||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
