Click to play videoNew Delhi: For a man so strongly attracted to the limelight, it is surprising to find that David Beckham is now drawn towards the shadows. Even as he approaches Bobby Moore's record for an outfield player of 108 caps in the friendly against Slovakia, Beckham is enough of a realist to recognise his best years are long behind him.
"I think at the end of the day I've been to different clubs and played in different countries and I've been happy to have done that and I feel honoured to have played for the clubs and played with some of the players that I've played with. But this is one of the biggest highlights of my career, to still be in this team, almost 34-years-old and be on 108 caps is something special for me," says he.
But, over the course of three months at AC Milan, Beckham has begun to hold back and even reverse the sands of time. He has lost weight and looks determined to do whatever it takes to prolong his career.
"I think it's improved my fitness more than anything else because I said when I first arrived in Dubai with Milan my body fat was 13.7 and now it's 8.5 I think, so I think it was more about the fitness side than anything else, but obviously I've had to adjust my game to the Italian game as well and I had to do that when I moved to Spain from Manchester United and I felt it was successful there and obviously in Milan I'm enjoying that part of it," says he.
With England scheduled to play half-a-dozen World Cup qualifiers and three friendlies between this weekend and November, Beckham is staring at a grueling schedule ahead of next summer's World Cup finals, but his immediate aim is to do well in the World Cup qualifier against Ukraine on Wednesday.
"I know it sounds a cliche but there are no easy games in football these days, so it will be a tough game, we will do a lot of homework on them before that game but we haven't done anything yet because we've got a game on Saturday which we're concentrating on first. I'm sure Sunday the preparation will start for Ukraine but they're definitely a team with a lot of dangerous players," Beckham says.
So, clearly, his determination is evident. What remains to be seen is whether he succeeds in recapturing the form that has been the basis for his stellar existence over all these years.
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