Soccer: Beckham staying at Real Madrid

By GUILLEM BALAGUE

Chelsea can have Ronaldo if the money is right, but David Beckham is not for sale and will play at least another season with Real Madrid.

That was the message from Spain after Jorge Valdano, Real's director of football, reacted to speculation that Beckham was on his way back to England.


"Nothing has changed," Valdano said. "I have spoken to him and he is calm."

Two weeks ago the England captain also met club president Florentino Perez.

Perez showed his total support, despite Beckham's admission that things had not gone as smoothly as he would have wanted.

From those meetings, Real Madrid have reached one conclusion: Beckham will be playing for them next season.

If they get their way - which means offloading either or both of Ronaldo and Luis Figo - Madrid will not only keep Beckham, they will bring in Francesco Totti from Roma, Xabi Alonso from Real Sociedad, a world-class central defender, and, they hope, Ruud van Nistelrooy from Manchester United.

Valdano is aware that the British media have been here before with Beckham - twice. At Christmas, a tabloid declined to extend the contract of a correspondent in Madrid because they were convinced Beckham would leave in the January transfer window.

Next, coinciding with the frenzy of headlines about his personal life, everybody in England assumed there was no way for Beckham to be happy other than returning to the country that had newspaper and television stories about his marriage every day for three weeks.

"Real Madrid prefer to distance themselves from all this talk," Valdano said. "It is this time of the year where there are more rumours than real stories.

"The fact remains that Beckham has signed a five-year contract with us and there is a buy-out clause in it [of £180 million] that anybody interested in signing Beckham must pay."

The implication was that no one would come up with that sum, and it was not negotiable.

Real need money, especially as they may lose millions in a wrangle over the sale of their training ground.

But they see Ronaldo and Figo, not to mention Morientes, Flavio, and Celades, as better opportunities for raising it.

As Madrid's most senior people know, there is a personal situation that Real and Beckham need to address, and they intend to do so.

Beckham has to "put his mind in order", as a source at the Bernabeu said, because his game has become affected by "constant travelling and an excess of obligations".

The travelling is a difficulty, given that Beckham's wife and children will not be moving to Madrid, but Real are confident he will stay.

Beckham's commercial commitments have been reduced drastically since he left the management company SFX last October.

Moving after only one season at Real Madrid would work against Beckham's own wishes and those of the club, and would have a negative effect on his image and CV, according to the Madrid source.

That view was backed up by Jimmy Greaves, one of England's best players of the 1960s, who left AC Milan after a short stay.

"He will be making the biggest mistake of his career if he comes back now," Greaves said. "He would be considered a failure."

The biggest Madrid failure this season has been one of policy: using superstars and home-grown youngsters. They may yet win the Spanish title, but they went out of the Champions League to Monaco after following Perez's policy.

That is going to change this (northern) summer with the addition of at least four new names.

Totti will sign on a four-year contract, and a second purchase could be Van Nistelrooy as Madrid, despite the denials from Manchester, seem confident the Dutchman is happy to move.

Those two would be joined by a centre-back (Walter Samuel, of Roma, Jorge Andrade, of Deportivo, and Roberto Ayala, of Valencia, have been lined up) and by Xabi Alonso, the complete midfielder.

Real have only £35 million to spend, so they will have to sell to buy.

Amid much fanfare, Perez ended Madrid's huge debt with the controversial £270 million sale and redevelopment of their training ground.

Valdano recently admitted that the club had not bought a much-needed centre-back last summer because there was no money available.

They need to sell at least one star, Figo, after asking Perez to let him go, and he will try to move to England.

And Ronaldo?

Considered by some a negative influence for his "unpro-fessional" approach - off the pitch - he could be the main source of money.

As Valdano recently said: But, nearly three years on, the deal is on hold because of civil aviation restrictions that may halve the height of four office blocks to be built on the site, leaving one "We know Ronaldo has a price, the £180 million of his buy-out clause. To us Ronaldo has a huge strategic importance - but so does £180 million."

He did not say the same about Beckham.

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