Monaco talk to Beckham

SPICE Boy David Beckham could be on his way to Monaco to join the French second division club.

AS Monaco have admitted being in talks with the 37-year-old midfielder in Los Angeles, where he is due to play in Saturday’s MILS cup final, his last game with Los Angeles Galaxy.

Monegasque executive managing director Tor-Kristian Karlsen told the BBC: “Right now we’re trying to learn if Beckham’s future ambitions are in sync with ours.”

He added they were “happy with our current squad – but if there's a chance to get a player of Beckham's stature, we'd be foolish not to explore it."

Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev bought a majority share of the club last December and brought in ex-Inter Milan and Chelsea manager Claudio Ranieri.

Paris St Germain and English clubs such as QPR and West Ham are also said to be interested in signing Beckham – but he decided against joining PSG last year.

Beckham told the Daily Telegraph he knew nothing about the Monaco approach until yesterday, but added: “It is nice to be recognised by good managers. To have good managers like Carlo Ancelotti [PSG], Harry Redknapp [QPR] and Sam Allardyce [West Ham] coming out and saying they’d love me to play for them means a lot to me”

Monaco were relegated from Ligue 1 last season, just six years after playing in the Champions League final where they lost 3-0 to Porto. Joining a club challenging for promotion could interest Beckham as he said he was “looking for a last challenge”.

Attracting Beckham and wife Victoria to Monaco would be a massive boost to the club’s finances – with potential global sales of replicas of his red and white strip.
Photo: Calebrw