Will David Beckham leave the Manchester Untied?

The club announced yesterday in a message posted on its homepage that the Spanish club Barcelona and the Manchester agreed on certain conditions to trading of Beckham from the Manchester to the Barcelona.

The announcement was based on the agreement made by Beckham`s current club and a chairmanship candidate of the Barcelona club. If the candidate gets elected, the agreement will take effect unless Beckham disagrees.

The money for the trading is not confirmed. But major sports magazines guess it would amount to at least 48 million dollars.

The Manchester plans to buy two or three strikers like Ronaldo with the income it would make from the announced trading. The Manchester aims to win the title of the European Cup with the beefed-up attack.

Now the success of the deal depends on Beckham. Beckham`s agent company SFX issued a statement immediately and denied the deal. It said, "Beckham will never leave the Manchester." It also criticized, "We were very shocked and disappointed at the news. We think they used Beckham for political reason to win the election."

Beckham`s father Ted also indirectly criticized Manchester`s coach Alex Ferguson and was quoted as saying, "I want my son to remain at the club. There is some conspirator in the club to push my son out." Manchester coach Ferguson is reportedly on bad terms with Beckham.

Beckham himself, however, seems to be leaning toward moving to the Barcelona. He has been traveling in the Untied States with his wife. In an interview with The LA Times, Beckham said, "If my club wants, I will remain. But I have never promised to remain at the team for good, nor to end my career with the team," indicating that he has already decided to leave the Manchester.

It is reported that Beckham wishes to go over to Real Madrid, Inter Milan or AC Milan. Therefore, it is not sure, for now, whether or not the agreement will go through as expected.

On the other hand, the Barcelona`s chairmanship candidate did not hide his will to hire Beckham and reportedly said, "We wish to meet Beckham at the earliest possible time. If I don`t win the chairmanship, I will have the new chairman honor the agreement."

Sang-Ho Kim hyangsan@donga.com