Graphic: the road to 126 caps

It came as news to the manager of the Los Angeles Galaxy, but negotiations to send their star to a different firmament are “going really well” according to Leonardo, the AC Milan technical director. David Beckham is expected to play for the Serie A club in January and February before returning to California to link up with the Galaxy for their pre-season training.

The player’s representative, Simon Oliveira, said yesterday that the move was not a prologue to a permanent deal and that Beckham has “every intention” of fulfilling the remaining three years of his Major League Soccer (MLS) contract. However, Bruce Arena, the head coach and general manager of the Galaxy, had clearly been caught by surprise and expressed doubts about the plan.

“On the surface, it sounds like an odd proposition,” Arena said. “I don’t see where that benefits MLS or the Galaxy. I would think that [given] the position the Galaxy is in and [the fact that] we’re rebuilding our team and trying to have a successful year, it would seem very odd if we were loaning out our top players at the start of the season.”

Ivan Gazidis, the MLS deputy commissioner, said: “We are in exploratory talks to look at whether the opportunity makes sense for the Galaxy and David. If it does — and only if it does — things will go forward. To have David playing at a high level, match-fit and returning highly tuned, would be positive for the Galaxy and MLS.”

The move makes perfect sense for Beckham, being designed to keep him in the international frame, but the man who holds the record number of appearances for England, Peter Shilton, is sceptical that the 33-year-old will be able to challenge his tally. Beckham needs 19 more caps to pass Shilton’s record of 125. If England qualify for the 2010 World Cup and Beckham plays every game from now until then, he could do it in South Africa, but Shilton thinks that is a tall order.

“I’m proud of my record. I wouldn’t like to lose it, but I don’t really see David breaking it,” the former goalkeeper said. “The way things are going you can never say never, but I feel he can only break it as a supersub and I don’t see that happening. It will be very difficult for him. It’s down to the manager and to David if he wants to have that role, but if England are going to do well in the World Cup, they’ve got to be blooding young players and looking at others.”

The possibility of Beckham approaching Shilton’s mark via cameos from the bench has led some to suggest that the achievement would be cheapened. “I could see the thought process in bringing him on against Kazakhstan, because it was obvious that they \ would tire in the last 15 minutes,” Shilton said. “But I didn’t think it was justifiable at all to bring him on with two minutes to go against Belarus. I couldn’t believe it. I thought, ‘I don’t know if that’s right.’

“Previous managers have given caps away. Sven-Göran Eriksson, for example — it was a bit ridiculous. With \ Capello, you can see his planning, a bit of strategy in what he does. When he brings players on, you think it is for a reason. In the last game, that is the first time when I thought there wasn’t a tactical reason.

“I’m a fan of David’s and I don’t think he’d want to break my record by being given it. I don’t think that is David Beckham and if it was, I would be disappointed. And two minutes at the end is giving a cap away. Whether it goes on like that, who knows? If someone does break the record, I’ll be the first to congratulate them.”

Shilton played for England until he was almost 41, his last cap coming in the third-place play-off at the World Cup finals in 1990. “I could have carried on but I felt it was a fitting time to bow out,” he said. “I wanted to go out at the top and that’s the only way to do it, really.”

Peter Shilton is supporting Communicating for Success, a charity partnership between BT and the Football Foundation. For more information visit bt.com