DAVID BECKHAM is so keen to fashion a return to the Premier League with a short loan move to Tottenham Hotspur that he has indicated he is prepared to accept a reduction to his weekly wage.
Negotiations between Tottenham and Beckham’s club, Los Angeles Galaxy, are set to continue, with two factors standing in the way of a deal being struck at present. Galaxy have demanded that Beckham be back with them on February 10th, which would give him plenty of time to reintegrate with their squad ahead of the club’s opening fixture of the Major League season on March 15th.
Spurs, however, feel that a one-month loan would lack value for them and they are holding out for a deal in which Beckham would spend all of next month at White Hart Lane plus, ideally, some of March.
The second problem is, inevitably, financial and it concerns the two clubs’ differing valuations of Beckham. When the midfielder moved from Real Madrid to Los Angeles in July 2007 on a five-year contract, it was estimated that the deal was worth as much as $250 million (€193 million) to him in salary and marketing spin-offs.
The contract is complicated. For example, AEG, the company that owns Galaxy, promised to help fund Beckham’s Soccer Academies in London, Los Angeles and South America only for the first two to close down and the latter not to get off the ground.
Beckham also has a revenue share agreement with Galaxy and he earns further substantial sums through image rights clauses.
In an effort to smooth the deal with Tottenham, Beckham, according to sources close to the negotiations, will not demand that the north London club pay him for the use of his image during his time with them and, in broad terms, he will take a hit on his wages. He is simply desperate to play, after the trauma of the Achilles injury that ruined last season for him and deprived him of the chance to feature for England at the World Cup finals. He is mindful, too, that at the age of 35, his playing days are numbered.
Tottenham, though, are unwilling to pay the percentage of Beckham’s wages that Galaxy are demanding and the two sides are some way apart. They are each renowned as tough negotiators and a day-to-day approach is being taken. Time is of the essence, however, as the Spurs manager, Harry Redknapp, has said that the longer the talks drag on, the less viable the loan becomes.
Beckham is on site, which helps. In the absence so far of an official deal, he has agreed to train with Tottenham until February 10th to maintain his fitness during the MLS close-season and it was his first day at the club yesterday.
He underwent several fitness tests, which are believed to have gone well, and met the club’s medical staff at the training ground in Chigwell, Essex. He will train with the first-team squad for the first time today. His six-hour stay was broken up by an hour’s worth of tests at a local hospital. Masses of camera crews and photographers were in attendance to capture the image of him sporting a Tottenham tracksuit.
In a quirk of fate, Tottenham entertain Manchester United, the club where Beckham emerged in the 1990s to make his name, at White Hart Lane on Sunday. He had previously said that he would only return to English football to play for United. Beckham left for Madrid in the summer of 2003 in a €30 million deal. He has spent a portion of the past two seasons on loan from Galaxy at Milan.
Guardian Service
