Former England captain David Beckham is poised for a return to European football with a loan move to Italian giants AC Milan. The move will commence in January 2009 and Beckham, who currently plays for Major League Soccer team Los Angeles Galaxy, is likely to remain at the Serie A club until April.
With the 2008 MLS season concluding in October a five month hiatus awaits before the new season kicks off in March, and Beckham knows he must be playing regularly if he wants to retain his place in the England squad; back in January he was excluded from coach Fabio Capello’s first game in charge of the national team against Switzerland due to the lengthy MLS break, despite spending some of that time training with Arsenal. Clearly, a sustained run of games is the only way he will add to an already impressive tally of 107 England caps, a tantalising figure given he is one shy of the all time record for outfield players, currently held by Bobby Moore.
Beckham's First Game
If the move goes through it is thought Beckham’s first game in the famed red and black stripes of the Rossoneri will be away to AS Roma on January 11th. With the seven times European Cup winners absent from this season’s UEFA Champions League, Beckham will also get his first taste of second-tier European club football in the UEFA Cup, a competition the Italian giants, given their trophy winning pedigree, are expected to win.
While the proposed move to Italy has been well received across Europe, Los Angeles Galaxy coach Bruce Arena remains decidedly cool on the subject of Beckham’s departure. According to the Los Angeles Times, he says, ‘It would seem very odd to me if we were loaning out our top players at the start of the season. It would seem pretty odd to me to operate that way.’ Conversely, AC Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti is relishing the prospect of working with the veteran winger. As reported in British newspaper The Guardian, he says, ‘We will not consider him a tourist but a fully fledged player who will insert himself into the squad without problems and compete with the others.’
Veteran Players
At 33 Beckham will find himself in good company at the Milanese club, who have developed something of a reputation for getting the best out of veteran players. Of the old hands in the current squad, 40 year old left back Paolo Maldini tops an illustrious list that includes Fillipo Inzaghi and Dida (both 35), Emerson, Andriy Shevchenko and Alessandro Nesta (all 32).
Talking to website AFP, Beckham confirmed his interest in playing for the club, citing their state of the art training facilities as an added motivation. ‘The training facilities are second to none,’ he says. ‘I know their work ethic. They wouldn’t have players like Maldini and Cafu there for so many years and at the ages they are and still playing top-flight football if they didn't have an incredible training regime. I wanted to go somewhere like that, they gave me the chance to go there and stay as fit as possible and play great football, so hopefully I'm going to do that.’
