‘Becks’ blues for United fans

LONDON: David Beckham bought three shirts in a reported ?10,000 (US $15,500) shopping spree the day after his Manchester United football team was knocked out of the Champions Cup by Real Madrid.

Whether Beckham will add a white Real Madrid shirt to his collection in his next big money deal is the question worrying Reds fans and dominating the front and back page headlines in England. The Spanish football powerhouse are widely reported close to completing a ?38-million (US$59 million) bid for United’s England captain. Beckham would join a star-studded Real Madrid line-up that includes Ronaldo, Zinedine Zidane, Luis Figo, Roberto Carlos and Raul Gonzalez.

The fact that United manager Alex Ferguson dropped Beckham to the substitutes’ bench for Wednesday night’s Madrid match, heightened speculation that the star midfielder will be leaving Old Trafford this summer. Beckham came off the bench in the second half to score two late goals as United came from behind to beat Madrid 4-3 in the Champions League quarter-finals. But Ferguson’s team, which lost the first leg 3-1 in Madrid, went out 6-5 on aggregate. After the final whistle, Beckham made a point of lingering on the pitch and saluting the home fans in what some interpreted as a farewell gesture.

One tabloid newspaper reported that, just 40 minutes after the match, Beckham was in talks with his agent to set up a move to Madrid. United issued a denial, saying the discussions had been pre-arranged and were related to one of his endorsements. Beckham would help increase Real Madrid’s commercial contacts in the lucrative Asian markets. During England’s World Cup campaign in Japan, thousands of Japanese fans wore either Manchester United or England shirts with Beckham’s name on the back. With his team coming to terms with yet another Champions Cup elimination, Beckham walked into a Giorgio Armani store in Manchester on Thursday and bought three shirts, a jacket and two pairs of pants.

Newspapers, which splashed photos of Beckham leaving the shop across front pages yesterday, said he had spent ?10,000 — one-tenth of his weekly salary. “On the morning after the night before,” the Daily Mail’s deputy show business editor wrote, “there was only one thing David Beckham could do to get over his humiliation. He had to go shopping.” Wearing a white T-shirt, a hair band and fashionably scruffy jeans, Beckham braved the Manchester rain to make his shopping trip alone. His wife, former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham, was in London recording an album. Some papers suggested Beckham’s very public appearance was his way of getting back at Ferguson for being benched.