By IANS
London : David Beckham got an unlikely supporter in England manager Fabio Capello when the latter said the former England captain could perform similar job, which Cristiano Ronaldo has successfully done for Manchester United, the media here reported Friday.
The speculations were rife after Beckham’s landmark 100th appearance in Paris that he would be gradually eased out of the England set-up as Capello prepared for the World Cup qualification campaign. However, the England manager, reflecting on the first defeat of his reign, gave Beckham’s supporters plenty of encouragement.
Capello pointed out that for the first half of Wednesday’s 1-0 loss to France he had used Wayne Rooney as a lone striker, supported by Steven Gerrard, because that was precisely where each were currently playing for Manchester United and Liverpool, a report in Daily Telegraph said.
However, when it was put to him that, at club level, Rooney was supported by Ronaldo, while Gerrard worked with a striker of Fernando Torres’s class, Capello replied: “I have David Beckham and Rooney can be our Torres. I believe they are both good players.”
Capello does not imagine that the 32-year-old former England captain, whose best work is now largely confined to dead-ball situations, can ape the game of Manchester United’s highly-mobile 23-year-old but it demonstrates he is not prepared to write off a man he came to know well at Real Madrid.