Beckham - Where will ego?
David Beckham should join Real Madrid for purely footballing reasons, but Barcelona may still have a chance of luring him if new president Joan Laporta can “massage his ego”, according to Manchester United fanzine editor Andy Mitten.
The United We Stand editor believes Beckham would fit nicely into Real’s team of superstars and would be attracted by the prospect of Champions League football next season, but is not underestimating Laporta’s powers of persuasion.
He said: “From a footballing point of view he should go to Madrid because they’re probably the best football team in the world.
“David would fit well into their line-up. He would have a lot more freedom, they play a lot less rigid formation than Manchester United and he wouldn’t be expected to track back like he does at United.
“He’ll be paid top dollar wherever he goes. From Barcelona’s point of view, I think it would be a good lifestyle choice but he’d be joining a very mediocre team.
“They’re going to be lucky to get into the UEFA Cup next season, they have a lot of top-class players but they’ve just not been able to get it right for two or three years now.
“They’ve wasted money on players who just haven’t performed to the expected standard, whereas Madrid have honed the art of signing one world-class player each year.
“Laporta will say to Beckham ‘We want to rebuild this club around you. This club is a great club with a great history and just as we built Barcelona around Johan Cruyff in the 1970s we’d like to do the same around you now’.
“He will tell Beckham that he will be the main man here and there’s got to be some attraction in that if he can massage David’s ego.
“Barcelona is probably the nicest city in Europe to live in but I still think he’ll have his work cut out because if it comes down to a hard football decision, Madrid are in a different league at the moment.”
