Race for Barca job thrown wide open

The David Beckham saga is already at saturation point and it’s only June. James Whelan reports from Spain

DAVID BECKHAM for Ronald Koeman, Christian Vieri for Mateja Kezman, Cristian Chivu for Hernan Crespo.

Candidates in Barcelona's presidential election are coming to resemble kids arguing over football stickers in the playground, as the Beckham effect threatens to take over the campaign.

Ever since news broke of Man Utd's willingness to do a deal with Joan Laporta for Beckham subject to the England captain agreeing personal terms the race for the top job at one of the world's biggest sporting clubs has been thrown wide open.

Laporta was a rank outsider at the start of the race, but he is now neck and neck with favourite Lluis Bassat ahead of Sunday's vote.

Bassat, who ran unsuccessfully against Joan Gaspart three years ago, had been expected to romp home this time round, particularly after he signed Pep Guardiola as his director of football. Bassat, a highly respected 61-year-old publicist, responded to the news of Beckham's link with Laporta by announcing that he had made contact with Ajax Amsterdam with a view to signing Ronald Koeman as coach.

"I've spoken to Ajax chairman Arie van Eijden by phone and we've arranged to resume negotiations after the election," Bassat said. "I'm not saying anything, but if the door wasn't open we wouldn't have arranged to talk again. People may think we're a long way from signing Koeman but it's closer than Beckham is to Barcelona at the moment."

Bassat is banking on the combination of Guardiola and Koeman to outweigh the attraction of Beckham but the choice for voters is not quite as simple as that. Jaume Llaurado has already announced a deal to sign the Romanian defender Chivu from Ajax and he attempted to trump the Beckham news on Wednesday by claiming to have an agreement with Inter Milan to sign either Vieri or Crespo.

Llaurado added to the intrigue yesterday when he announced the signing of a first-team player from Real Madrid, but refused to reveal the name until the election result is known.

Real Madrid are continuing to send out mixed messages about the possible signing of Beckham. Madrid's players, led by captain Fernando Hierro, are attempting to ignore the immense speculation surrounding the England captain before the derby with Atletico, while the club's directors are doing little to deny the rumours. Hierro insists the transfer talk is disrupting to players as they prepare to resume their race with Real Sociedad for the Primera Liga title. He said: "I can see no reason why Beckham could be important to Madrid between now and the end of the season.

Spanish midfielder Guti, one of the players whose place could be threatened by Beckham, said: "I'm not annoyed people are speaking about Beckham, but I don't think it shows respect to those of us who are playing for the league."

Meanwhile, European champions AC Milan have said they are not in talks to sign Beckham, Italy striker Francesco Totti or Lazio's Dutch defender Jaap Stam. "Regarding those names. there are no talks because none of Milan's champions of Europe deserve to be ousted by other players."