Beckham subjected to bitter attack from Real:

Real Madrid's president, Ramón Calderón, last night launched a bitter attack on David Beckham as the Englishman's final six months in Spain look set to descend into acrimony and recrimination. Beckham would like to negotiate an early departure from Madrid but that may prove difficult after the MLS commissioner Don Garber admitted LA Galaxy will struggle to find the money necessary to buy him out of his current contract.

If he is forced to stay, he will have little choice but to sit and suffer as a Bernabéu outcast - and, even if he succeeds in joining the LA Galaxy in time for the start of the MLS season in April, his departure will be wrought with bitterness. Not only has the coach Fabio Capello insisted Beckham will never play for the club again, but Calderón has now accused him of leading the club on.

"Beckham's representatives have toyed with us for the last two months. Whenever his representatives met Predrag Mijatovic they never informed him or the club that he had agreed a contract with another club," Calderón said. "They never told us that Beckham had made his decision, that he had bought a house in Los Angeles. I don't feel that it's right and I certainly don't like it.