Capello - No favour for Becks

Former captain poised to win 100th England cap

Last updated: 22nd March 2008

David Beckham LA Galaxy

Beckham: Fit and available

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Fabio Capello insists he has not called David Beckham into the England squad to face France purely for the midfielder to win his 100th cap.

Beckham was left out of Capello's first England squad against Switzerland last month due to a lack of match fitness.

He has been recalled for next week's game in France and is likely to join an elite band of players to have reached a century of appearances for England.

There have been suggestions that Beckham, who turns 33 in May, has only been selected to remove the issue of his 100th cap from future squad announcements.

But Capello, who worked with the ex-England captain at Real Madrid, is adamant that Beckham still has much to offer at international level.

Useful

"In the previous match I did not call him up because he was not fit having not played any games," said Capello. "He is now fit.

"When David is fit he can always bring an important contribution because of his vision on the pitch and the fact he can cross the ball and always create chances. Not only from free-kicks.

"It's not my style to call someone up to do them a favour.

"I will call players in that I believe are useful to the team and with a view on future games and what I need to do in the future. I called him up because I believe he is going to be useful to the team."

Capello also brushed off suggestions that playing for Los Angeles Galaxy in Major League Soccer will diminish Beckham's worth to the England squad.

Fit and available

He added: "Good players are good players whether they play in America, England or in Spain.

"On top of that I believe that David Beckham is probably more fresh than other players at the moment having just started his season.

"He only trained before, but now he has played some games. We have time to watch him in training.

"The important thing at the moment is that he is available and fit. And more importantly he declared himself fit and available for England."