Manchester OKs Transfer Fee for Beckham
 

MANCHESTER, England - Manchester United announced on Tuesday it had agreed a transfer fee with Barcelona for the sale of England captain David Beckham.

The deal is subject to a number of conditions including personal terms and Joan Laporta being elected president of Barcelona, United said.

"Manchester United confirms that club officials have met Joan Laporta, the leading candidate for the presidency of Barcelona," the club said in a statement.

"These meetings have resulted in an offer being made for the transfer of David Beckham to Barcelona.

"This offer is subject to a number of conditions and critically to both Mr. Laporta being elected president on Sunday 15 June and Barcelona subsequently reaching agreement with David Beckham on his personal contract.

"Manchester United confirms that, in the event that all of the conditions are fulfilled, then the offer would be acceptable."

FC Barcelona said Tuesday it had no comment on the Beckham transfer and referred all queries to Laporta. Laporta could not be immediately contacted.

Manchester United's announcement came after months of speculation about Beckham's future. Another Spanish club, nine-time Champions Cup winner Real Madrid, current champion AC Milan and Inter Milan had also been linked with a move for the England captain.

As is customary with transfer dealing, no fee was revealed by Manchester United. Newspaper reports have said any bid for Beckham would have to be at least 30 million pounds (US$48 million).

Beckham, who has been at Manchester United for almost 13 years and has helped the club win eight league titles in 11 years and the Champions Cup in 1999, is currently in Los Angeles with his pop star wife, "Posh Spice" Victoria.

Beckham told the Los Angeles Times he was happy to stay at Manchester United but had never said he would remain there for the rest of his career.

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Well, I know Sir Alex needs to make room for new talent if he's going to continue winning Premierships, he needs to move SOMEBODY out. I guess Beckham was the most obvious choice, but hey, when you've won as much as Man U has, I'm pretty sure that the team will pretty much still be awesome.

My only concern is their young defense who faltered during key games, especially in the champions league. John O`Shea to me doesn't seem to be developing well enough at the European level. He missed many of the marking jobs he had against Real Madrid.

Oh yeah, and American Tim Howard is going to back up that klutz Barthez! I always said Fabian was a good goalkeeper, but nothing special. His style has cost them too many mistakes.

Apparently, according to ESPN, Beckham is going to reject the offer.