David Beckham to sign for PSG? It's not a fait accompli
French press assume it's in the bag – but Becks is more concerned about his leaked Christmas card
WILL HE or won't he? The French press are adamant that Goldenballs David Beckham is to decamp from Hollywood to France next month where he will join the Qatari-owned Paris Saint Germain on a monthly fee of €800,000, with a home in a suitable quartier thrown in and places for his three sons at the British School in Paris.
"Il a dit Oui!" Le Parisien announced yesterday. After four months of negotiation, the paper went on excitedly, Beckham has agreed to play for PSG until the end of the 2012/13 season.
His current contract at LA Galaxy ends in nine days' time – December 31 – and Beckham can expect a "rock star" welcome to Paris, possibly a City Hall celebration normally accorded foreign heads of state.
Not so fast, Messieurs...
According to Talksport, no deal has been signed and Beckham is still weighing up his options – which include staying with LA Galaxy and keeping his family in California. A spokesperson for Beckham said: "No agreement has been reached with any club yet, talk of a deal is premature. David wasn't in Paris over the weekend, contrary to media reports. He is still in discussion with a number of clubs, including LA Galaxy."
This rather spikes the guns of a French presidential candidate who decided this week to make her mark by objecting strongly to Beckham's arrival at PSG, which she assumed was a fait accompli.
Judge Eva Joly, who normally occupies herself with anti-corruption law but is standing next year as the presidential candidate for the environmentalist party, believes Beckham is not worth the money.
"At his age and with the state of his knees, he's just selling T-shirts," said Joly. "The salary is an example of how huge sums of money are concentrated in the hands of very few." Socialist MP Jean-Marc Avrault was right behind her. "I've had enough of enormous salaries," he said.
The question PSG fans want answered is whether Beckham still has what it takes. Interviewed by L'Equipe, the former Liverpool and Aston Villa manager Gerard Houllier, who managed PSG in the 1980s, said Beckham was still a "decisive" player.
"He can make the difference in a big game with a pass, a cross, or a free kick," Houllier said yesterday. "I don't know exactly what shape Beckham's in, but if defenders don't mark him closely enough, he can put the ball on a teammate's head with uncanny precision."
Meanwhile, Beckham himself is more concerned about the pressing matter of his leaked Christmas card. He and his wife Victoria are said to be deeply upset that a card specially designed for sending to a few friends and journalists has appeared in public after a Vogue magazine journalist and the editor of Glamour both posted it online.
The card carried a photo showing the Beckham kids topless and, according to reports, was never intended for public consumption.
When Jo Elvin, editor of Glamour, removed it from her Twitter account, she tweeted: "I should point out, the Christmas card from the Beckhams is Not for publication. It was private. My bad. Sorry, got swept up in adorableness." ·
