Beckham pledges future to Real ahead of Euros

DAVID BECKHAM last night moved to end growing doubts over his playing future and his marriage ahead of the Euro 2004 finals by pledging to stay at Real Madrid.

Beckham has been linked with a potential move back to London this summer, with Chelsea interested in securing the services of the England captain.

What started as a successful spell in the Spanish capital took a turn for the worse when Real were eliminated from the Champions League and then lost out in La Liga to Valencia.

And when details emerged of an alleged affair, the spotlight was increasingly trained on his wife Victoria's failure to move to Madrid.

Now however, Beckham has not only pledged his future on the pitch to Real but, perhaps even more crucially, he has revealed that his family will move to Spain this summer.

The couple are intent on putting an end to the rumours predicting the demise of their marriage by taking out a new lease on a house in Madrid, while their eldest son, Brooklyn, will finally be enrolled in a Spanish school.

The decision of the former Spice Girl to commit herself to living, at least part-time, in Spain is crucial to her husband's decision.

Chelsea's main attraction to the Beckham family was the ability for them to return to England and live in their Hertfordshire mansion.

Victoria Beckham added: "The time is now right for the children to move to Madrid and we are all looking forward to it enormously.

"It is a fantastic city with wonderful people and David and I are looking forward to strengthening our links with both. We are all very excited."

The statement comes just a few days after the England captain caused controversy by being sent off in the penultimate game of Real's season.

This was again magnified when Real attempted to prevent him from taking a meaningful part in Martin Keown's testimonial at Highbury just 24 hours later.

As it was, Beckham played for just three minutes, with seven touches, but still ignored the initial attempts to substitute him after he had as allowed - kicked off.

Speculation over Beckham will not dissipate entirely. After all, he is clearly coveted by Roman Abramovich and at least one of Real Madrid president Florentino Perez's election rivals is standing on a mandate to sell him.