Club wants to keep Beckham
Ramon Calderon, the president of Real Madrid, said Sunday that he would do everything he could to get David Beckham to remain with the team instead of joining Major League Soccer’s Galaxy next month as planned.
“That ship has sailed,” responded Alexi Lalas, the Galaxy’s president and general manager, who insisted that Beckham would arrive in Los Angeles in mid-July.
Calderon, a tennis fan, was at the French Open in Paris to see Spain’s Rafael Nadal defeat Roger Federer in the men’s singles final and suggested to reporters that there might be an escape clause in Beckham’s contract with MLS.
“He is playing at a very high level,” Calderon said. “We will have to sit down with his representatives ... to look at this clause and decide what to do. But I would love him to stay at the club.... We are going to do all we can to make him stay.”
Does Beckham’s contract have an escape clause of any sort?
“No,” Lalas said.
“I don’t doubt the fact that Real Madrid would love to have David Beckham back,” he added, pointing out that the England midfielder would be sought after by “numerous clubs around the world, especially considering what’s happened over the past couple of months.
“To be fair to Real Madrid, the comments on the face of it are pretty benign. Yes, there’s a desire” to have him remain at Real Madrid, “but just saying it doesn’t make it true.”
Beckham’s London-based agent, Simon Oliveria, told the Associated Press that “there is no intention of ... reneging on the Galaxy deal.”
Beckham will play for Real Madrid on Sunday in Madrid, where a victory over Real Mallorca would give his team the Spanish league title. His contract with the club ends June 30.
Lalas said winning the championship should be Real Madrid’s focus now, not second-guessing its inability to sign Beckham, 32, to a new contract.
“In what is probably the most important week of the year for Real Madrid, I would hope that that entire organization is focused on winning La Liga and not doing anything that would cause any type of controversy or friction to derail that,” Lalas said.
Beckham and his family will go on vacation immediately after Sunday’s game, but his exact arrival date in Los Angeles is not known.
“To be honest with you, it’s changing,” Lalas said. “It goes back and forth. We do want to give him the time to rest his body and mind before facing what is shaping up to be a pretty crazy second half of the season here.”
