Soccer: Star of David fades away

David Beckham's international career was brought to a spectacular end yesterday when Steve McClaren revealed he told the former captain that his face no longer fitted under the new England regime. "I was planning for the future and a different direction," McClaren said, "and David wasn't included in that."

The England manager, who has already earned the nickname "Mac the knife", chose his first squad announcement to make the deepest cut of all. Beckham released a statement in which he pledged to continue fighting for his place in the team, but it is understood that McClaren has told the 31-year-old that he will not consider picking him again.

It was a day that was supposed to be about the future - about the new captain John Terry and assistant manager Terry Venables - but in the end McClaren's first squad announcement, to face Greece on Thursday (NZT), was all about the past.

It was about the demise of one of the most high-profile football careers in the history of the English game and how this relatively uncelebrated, unknown England manager destroyed, at a stroke, any suggestion that he is just another Sven Goran Eriksson.

McClaren was remarkably cool in his description of the conversation that brought the curtain down on Beckham's 10 extraordinary years with the England team. He called before Beckham departed for America with Real Madrid this week and yesterday the erstwhile England captain was dolefully practising corners on his own in a stadium in Salt Lake City.

"I spoke with David on Monday, notified him of my decision and said I was planning for the future," McClaren said. "I said I was looking to bring in new faces, go in a different direction and David wasn't included within that. Of course it was difficult, because of the player David is and the working relationship we'd always had, the respect I've got for him and he has for me.

"It was always going to be a big decision but I felt it was one I had to make. It would have been more difficult if we did not have the relationship and respect for each other. It was the sort of conversation that happens in football quite a few times.

"I'm looking to take this team in a different direction and it's a clean sheet of paper for everybody, which is why I decided not to pick David Beckham. It was just a decision I felt I had to make when I was looking to the future of two years, four years."

McClaren tried to evade the question of whether there is a chance for Beckham to play international football again - with a nervous slip of the tongue he said the door "will never be open" before correcting himself.

Despite being told otherwise, Beckham responded with a statement in which he said that he understood a new manager had to make his mark - suggesting he had been made an example of - and that his desire to play remains strong. Beckham is understood to have reacted calmly, although he was shocked by the decision.

It will do nothing to improve Beckham's mood to know that the only manager McClaren quoted in support of his new approach was the midfielder's former mentor, now nemesis, Sir Alex Ferguson. "Alex always said at Manchester United that you have to go through the fire to be ready to win," McClaren said. He was referring more to the disappointment of previous tournaments than the decision to leave out Beckham but it seemed to fit both situations.

McClaren has also effectively ended the international careers of Sol Campbell and David James. Back into the squad come Shaun Wright-Phillips, Jermain Defoe, Kieran Richardson, Phil Neville, Wes Brown, Luke Young, Michael Dawson, Chris Kirkland and Darren Bent. Dean Ashton and keeper Ben Foster are included for the first time.

- INDEPENDENT