Are Real Madrid usurping the only club on earth that compares to its riches and style? Or has Manchester driven the agenda and has the cunning knight of British soccer dealt the cards his way again? In their world, the only answer that means anything will come in the Champions League and at the bank. But watch for Ferguson this week as he may well take the attention away from Beckham’s unveiling at the Real Madrid basketball team’s 5,000-capacity Raimundo Saporta hall.
On Tuesday, Beckham will land at El Torrejon military airbase and be ferried to the media presentation by police-escorted motorcade. His medical will become a circus, filmed by Real Madrid TV and sold to the highest bidder (Japan, undoubtedly). If he is given the all-clear, he will be paraded to the fans on Wednesday, and within three weeks Real will take him back across Asia via China, Japan, Hong Kong and Malaysia to capitalise on his marketing phenomenon.
Do not put it beyond Ferguson to present Ronaldinho at the very hour of Beckham’s impact in Madrid. And do not think that the shedding of El Beckham, or the apparent bonhomie with which Ferguson said he could not stand in the way of an assistant offered the job of a lifetime, signals any kind of mellowing in the old tyrant of Old Trafford.
If Ronaldinho joins United, who among Ferguson’s staff can address him in his native Portuguese? There is a man, Francisco Filho, born in Brazil and steeped for almost 30 years in the French football academy at Clairefontaine, now working inside Carrington, the United training complex. Filho is there to guide the youth prospects of United, but if Ronaldinho, a boy within a man, needs a father figure there is one already in situ. Accident, or design? Never underestimate the manager of Manchester United.