David Beckham knows that Manchester United is out to sell him. But he doesn’t want to go to Barcelona.
The Reds agreed to a deal to sell the England captain to the Spanish club on Tuesday but the English superstar — believing he was being used as a pawn in a club presidential election — indicated he would reject it.
His agents said he was surprised and disappointed that the club he had served for 13 years was about to sell him while his father, Ted Beckham, suggested that Reds manager Alex Ferguson wanted him out.
After months of speculation about Beckham’s future, Manchester United said it had accepted a transfer bid for the England captain from FC Barcelona presidential candidate Joan Laporta.
The deal is contingent on Laporta winning Sunday’s election and Beckham agreeing to contract terms.
But Beckham’s management company, SFX, issued a statement saying he had no plans to meet Laporta or his aides.
”David is very disappointed and surprised to learn of this statement and feels that he has been used as a political pawn in the Barcelona presidential elections,” it said.
The would-be Barcelona president denied that was the case and isn’t giving up.
”It’s true that this agreement with Manchester United has a condition that we reach an agreement with the player and with his agent,” Laporta said at a news conference in Barcelona.
”I respect the position of the agent of the player and we hope to convince them in order for David Beckham to come to Barcelona if we win the next election at the club.”
As is customary in transfers, no fee was disclosed by Manchester United. Newspaper reports have said any bid for Beckham would have to be at least £30-million ($48-million).
Laporta said he would be trying to talk to Beckham as soon as the player returned from the United States. Sidelined with a broken wrist, Beckham and his wife Victoria, a former Spice Girl, are in Los Angeles.
”If I am not elected president, I would turn over the transfer to the man who does win,” Laporta said.
Another candidate in Sunday’s election, Josep Martinez-Rovira, said he had no interest in signing the England captain, perhaps the world’s most recognisable soccer star who creates headlines almost everywhere with his showbiz life and frequent changes of hairstyle.
”Beckham is a media signing and more of a dream than reality. He is a player we would never try to sign,” Martinez-Rovira told Spanish radio.
”Beckham makes a lot of news off the pitch, but we’re not interested in appearing in gossip columns.”
Sandro Rosell, Laporta’s campaign manager, insisted the deal could still go
through despite Beckham’s apparent rejection.
”I think that, if we win the elections, there are big possibilities of that happening,” Rosell told Sky Sports News. ”We are not using Beckham at all. We are following Fifa rules. We did not talk to the player first because the first thing was to talk to the club.”
Beckham’s father said he would urge his son to stay.
”I don’t want him to go,” he said. ”I shall tell him not to go there. I want him to stay at Manchester United.”
”I don’t want him to go just because a certain person wants him to go,” he said in a clear reference to Ferguson, who is reported to have become furious at the hype that follows Beckham around.
Another Spanish club, Real Madrid, and Italian teams AC Milan and Inter Milan also had been linked to a possible move for the 28-year-old midfielder.
Beckham has helped Manchester United win six of its eight league titles in 11 years and the European Champions Cup in 1999. He has been at Manchester United for almost 13 years, including its youth teams.
If Beckham moved to Barcelona, he could miss out on European soccer next season because the club failed to qualify for the Champions League and is unlikely to reach the Uefa Cup.
Manchester United, AC Milan and Inter Milan are already in the Champions Cup, and Real Madrid appears set to join them. – Sapa-AP