Only in his imaginings would Luis Figo's unselfish run have dragged players away from the Brazilian as he strode forward. But as Beckham stepped on to the turf, even his forthcoming sugar-coated autobiography could not have scripted the opening moments.The goal itself was ordinary enough in its final execution - a side-foot from close in Only the timing and the creation were not. In dreams, Beckham would have seen Zinedine Zidane turn sublimely and find Ronaldo. Maybe it is because this stellar collection - who try to play as a team - have another galactico in their dazzling ranks Gods on the pitch to be watched from up in the gods.
"I didn't want to get that close." A rapport with his team-mates was there, however.The building work around the imposing, vertiginous bowl of the Santiago Bernabeu stadium reveals it is being extended even further towards the skies. It was indeed show-time, and if the story began as a fairytale, with a goal after just 126 seconds, before turning into a bit of a horror yarn, as Madrid were alarmingly overrun by Real Betis in a cameo of their shortcomings, it had the right ending - a 2-1 win - with Beckham again playing a part. There was even pantomime - with a streaker Even he had (painted) Golden-balls. "I did not actually read what was on his, er, what was on him," Beckham said afterwards. The mixture of Spanish and English on the billboards provided a suitable signature to David Beckham's debut in La Liga for Real Madrid last night.
Comienza el show. In them England's captain confirms what was revealed in rumours and innuendo earlier this year, that there had been an irreconcilable breakdown of his relationship with Sir Alex Ferguson, his manager at Manchester United.The midfielder reveals how Ferguson blamed him for the Champions' League semi-final defeat by Real Madrid; accused him of disloyalty to United by visiting the Queen with the England World Cup squad while he was recovering from a broken rib; and insulted him in front of the United squad by ordering him to train with the reserves because he had missed a session to be with his son, Brooklyn, who was ill at the time.. He flighted a through ball to Zinedine Zidane, and the Frenchman's cross gave Ronaldo the chance to score the winner in a tough game.But Beckham is used to dealing with tough situations, according to the extracts from his autobiography that are published in a newspaper today. He announced himself in the second with a cracking drive from 30 yards that rattled the cross-bar and caused the opposition enough unease in his role in right midfield to attract a number of heavy tackles Beckham had the last laugh.
Having curled one free-kick just over the bar, he contented himself for the remainder of the first half with some tantalising crosses. "When you've got players like the players here you are always going to get chances." And you are always going to have to endure comparison but Beckham certainly held his own yesterday. But this was the real thing, a league game in which the points at stake were not merely the kind awarded by newspaper pundits assessing a player's performance.Wednesday night's goal had been a nod-in, this one was a tap-in from Ronaldo's cross, but no matter, it was a small act in the Bernabeu every bit as much a theatre as Old Trafford but it had the photographers' flash bulbs bursting and motor drives whirring as he celebrated, the audience on their feet screaming in delight."It was nice to score again and nice to get the result," Beckham said. Then, he had headed home a pass from Ronaldo as Real won the Spanish Super Cup by beating Real Mallorca 3-0 for a 4-2 victory on aggregate.
