Soccer: Beckham uneasy presence in England squad

Off the dusty R565 road, the England team bus finally swung through the gates of the Royal Bafokeng sports campus and in to the site they will call home for as long as they last in the World Cup finals.

For one member of the party - squad member No 24 - it would have been a bittersweet moment as the bus pulled up and the staff came out to meet the players.

David Beckham is at his fourth World Cup finals although not in the playing capacity he would have hoped for. He was, nevertheless, on the flight to Johannesburg and there are a few in the squad who are curious how this experiment will work out.

When Fabio Capello took over the England team in January 2008 and left Beckham out of his first squad to play Switzerland the following month, it would have been hard to imagine that he would be generous enough to take him as a mascot to the tournament more than two years later. England have four masseurs, a video technician, a chef and two kitmen, but it is Beckham's role that will stir the most interest.

According to the Capello camp yesterday, they intend to use him as an "assistant" to the general manager, Franco Baldini. He will be asked to observe the players in training and identify problems - or potential qualities - that Capello and his three other Italian staff might have missed. What is clear is that Beckham has crossed the line from player to coaching staff and his opinion will have some effect on how his erstwhile teammates are viewed by Capello.

By any stretch of the imagination that is a major leap to make, especially for a player who has designs on returning to the squad once his Achilles tendon injury has healed. The 115-cap veteran is regarded as a liaison between players and the management, traditionally the role of the captain. One source described Beckham as "part of the team without playing".

England will hold events for the local community from the small town of Phokeng in their new Bafokeng training ground, but for most of the time they will be locked away behind high fences and security gates. Judging from the outside, the place has been finished just in time from its state of unreadiness in February.

England's last visit to play a friendly in Durban seven years ago was a major glad-handing event when Beckham showed up with a corn-row-style hair plait and the biggest controversy was certain members of the squad turning down the chance to meet Nelson Mandela. The former President of South Africa met his national team yesterday, but his age and frailty mean it is not certain he will be at the opening ceremony or the final.

The Football Association always tries to do its bit on tour and it is keen to make a good impression on behalf of the 2018 World Cup bid but, Beckham aside, the players are in Bafokeng to prepare for the tournament.

As the sun set on their first evening in Bafokeng with the platinum mines and their rigs dotting the horizon, the players would surely have noticed that Capello has chosen a spot of splendid isolation. They trained for the first time yesterday on the Bafokeng pitches that were such a source of concern to Capello when he visited for the World Cup draw in Cape Town in December.

"The good thing is that I feel as if we are improving and it has been quite intense in training," Frank Lampard said. "We have been training very hard. The manager, with the attention to detail that he shows, will go through everything. You can rest assured he won't leave any stone unturned. We will be fully prepared. With a little bit of luck, and with everyone fit, we will have as good a chance as anybody."

During the week, the local authority in North West Province was still surfacing the roads and kitting out the Rustenburg World Cup stadium - where England will play the United States in their first game on June 13 (NZ time). This has always threatened to be a last-minute World Cup, Capello will hope it runs smoothly.

- Independent