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Former England national team captain David Beckham announced that he will leave the nine-time UEFA Champions League winners Real Madrid Club at the end of this season and sign a five-year contract with the American Major League Soccer (MLS) team Los Angeles Galaxy.
The 31-year-old midfielder, whose contract with the "royal" club is valid until August of this year, decided not to stay in Spain. He will sign a five-year contract with Los Angeles Galaxy in the summer and is expected to earn around 128 million pounds sterling.
This season has been very disappointing for D. Beckham, as he has been unable to secure a place in the main Real team squad, and after the end of the World Cup, the new coach Steve McClaren no longer calls him up to the national England team.
"This week Real asked me to give my final answer about my future at this club, and the offer of a new two-year contract," the Englishman told Reuters news agency. - "After discussing several things with my family and advisors, whether it is better for me to stay here, in Madrid, or move to another European or British club, I decided to represent the Galaxy team from August and play in the American MLS league."
"I would like to sincerely thank the club's fans and the people of Madrid, who accepted my family. I felt welcome here, so I made a very difficult decision," continued D. Beckham. - "I enjoyed the time spent in Spain immensely and want to thank the club that gave me the opportunity to play in such a high-level team and with such amazing fans."
"I am proud that during my football career I represented two of the most famous clubs, but now I am looking forward to the new challenge of popularizing the most popular game in the world in a country that loves sport as much as mine," added the player. - "I will try during the rest of the season to prove to the coach, teammates, and fans that I can play one hundred percent and hope that coach Fabio Capello and the club will go far, as they truly deserve."
Real Madrid also confirmed Beckham's departure: "The employees of Real Madrid Club met this morning with David Beckham's agents in the Santiago Bernabeu office. After the meeting, both sides agreed that the English legionnaire would not extend the current contract, which expires on June 31st of this year."
Born in the London suburb of Leytonstone, D. Beckham began his professional football career in 1992, debuting for Manchester United at just 17 years old. Later in 1995, the rising English star was loaned to the Preston team, where he scored two goals in 5 games and then returned to Manchester United trained by Sir Alex Ferguson.
Over time, the midfielder managed to establish himself in one of England's most famous teams and won six Premier League trophies, two Football Association (FA) Cups, and in the 1998-1999 season with the "Red Devils" defeated Bayern Munich 2-1 in a memorable final and won the UEFA Champions League Cup.
After spending a total of 11 years at Manchester United, playing 265 matches and scoring 62 goals, he was sold in 2003 to Real Madrid for 25 million pounds sterling. Spending three and a half years in the Spanish giants' team, he failed to win any trophies and scored 7 times in 67 matches against rival goalkeepers.
The player's debut for the England national team took place in 1996, and he became captain in 2000 when Swedish specialist Sven-Goran Eriksson took over the national team. However, Beckham's dream of playing 100 matches for the English national team did not come true - representing the national team 94 times, he scored 17 goals.
One of the most memorable goals of the world-famous footballer was a precise penalty kick in the 2002 World Cup qualifying match against Greece when he impressively converted a penalty kick to equalize and gave England a ticket to the World Cup in South Korea and Japan.
