Beckham England career 'over'

From correspondents in London

August 12, 2006 12:03am

FOOTBALL experts are asking whether the career of former England captain David Beckham is over as new manager Steve McClaren named the first squad of his tenure, with the star player a key omission.

Beckham was left out of McClaren's squad to face Greece in a friendly on August 16.

He is now perhaps unlikely to add further to his 94 caps, despite the 31-year-old's oft-stated ambition to become the fifth England player to reach 100 caps.

Into the squad comes West Ham's highly-rated forward Dean Ashton, along with fellow strikers Jermain Defoe and Darren Bent, both controversially left out of the World Cup squad by McClaren's predecessor, Sven Goran Eriksson.

Michael Owen is injured while teenage striker Theo Walcott, taken to the World Cup by Eriksson despite having not played a single Premiership game for Arsenal, was already not in contention, having been named in the Under 21 squad earlier this week.

Another member of the old guard to fall was veteran goalkeeper David James, with youngsters Chris Kirkland and Ben Foster preferred as backup to Paul Robinson.

However, another old face, defender-cum-midfielder Phil Neville, earns a perhaps surprise recall.

It is Beckham's omission that is the biggest sign McClaren plans to make his own stamp on the team.

The midfielder, who stepped down from his six-year tenure as captain following the World Cup, returned to club action for Real Madrid this week after suffering an Achilles injury during the World Cup quarter-final loss to Portugal.

He is thus injury free, meaning he has been dropped purely for footballing reasons.

It will be a bitter blow for Beckham, who has worked closely with McClaren before.

The new national boss was assistant manager at Manchester United when Beckham played there, as well as Sven-Goran Eriksson's number two.

During the World Cup several football pundits called for Beckham to be dropped, despite his scoring one of England's goals and setting up others.

Beckham captained England 59 times. Caretaker boss Peter Taylor first made him skipper for a friendly in Italy in 2000 before Eriksson made the role permanent in 2001.

Some critics accused Eriksson of being too close to his captain, making Beckham almost impossible to drop, whatever his form.

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