David Beckham (Reuters / Gonzalo Fuentes)
Football’s star-veteran, David Beckham, will forward all the money he’ll receive at his new club Paris Saint-Germain to charity.
PSG and Beckham signed a deal on Thursday, with the 37-year-old to play in the French capital till the end of the season.
“For the moment, we have decided to go until the end of the current season and then look at how we can continue the adventure,” Beckham is cited as saying by the club’s official website. “It’s true that PSG’s sporting project is very exciting and I would love to commit myself in the long term to help develop the club. But everything happened very quickly and we didn’t have the time to discuss the long term.”
PSG, which became one of the main players on the global transfer market after being acquired by the Qatar Investment Authority, has been hunting for Becks for over a year.
“Last year wasn’t the right time,” the Englishman explained. “I still wanted to achieve some great things with Los Angeles, win another title. Leonardo and I decided it would be best to wait a little. When my contract expired in the USA, we re-opened negotiations. In talking with Leonardo and Nasser [Al-Khelaifi], I saw very quickly that we could achieve some great things together. We decided that I will not receive any salary for these five months. Instead, we will make donations to the charities already supported by the PSG Foundation. It’s an excellent idea that everyone very quickly agreed upon.”
Beckham will become the oldest player in the French Ligue 1, but he says he still has strength and desire to perform at the highest level.
“I feel in perfect physical condition,” he stressed. “I still have an enormous passion and hunger for the game and I’m delighted to get another chance to give everything on the pitch. We’ll see how it goes and how I feel at the end of the season. Money is not my number one motivation, as you would have seen by the conditions in my contract. My goal has always been to play with the biggest clubs in the world alongside the best players on the planet. Today, that’s the case with Paris Saint-Germain.”
The former England’s captain has been a free agent since leaving the LA Galaxy in MLS this December.
During his 20-year career, Beckham has played for such sides as Manchester United, Real Madrid and AC Milan.
The iconic midfielder has won six English Premier League titles, the Spanish La Liga, two MLS crowns as well as the UEFA Champions League in 1998—99.
