Beckham plans another Philippine visit

Monday, December 5, 2011

GLOBAL football superstar David Beckham is keen on coming back to the Philippines after leading the Los Angeles Galaxy in routing the national team Azkals in a friendly match last Saturday.

Calling it a great trip, the 36-year-old Englishman thanked the Filipinos for their hospitality.

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"One of our staff is a Filipino and she told us all how beautiful it is here and also the amazing people. And as soon as we arrived (last December 1), we knew she’s telling the truth. We’d love to come back one day," he said.

America’s leading scorer Landon Donovan, meanwhile, said he was a little bit "sad" to go after admitting that he fell in love with the Philippines in such a short time.

Beckham and his teammates are now in Australia to cap their three-nation Asian tour.

A nearly sell-out crowd at the Rizal Memorial Stadium was totally in awe after Beckham unleashed his signature curling right-footed strike that opened up the scoring in the 20th minute.

While self-confessed Beckham fan Phil Younghusband shone the brightest for the Azkals with a goal in the 41st minute, the Galaxy proved too much for the Filipinos as they came up with five more goals in the second half.

But the final score hardly mattered to Beckham.

"The score doesn’t tell how close the game was at times. They (Azkals) don’t need me giving them advice. I can see that they’ve got talent in their team,” he said.

Aside from leading a football clinic for children, Beckham’s visit was marked by his chance meeting with world boxing icon Manny Pacquiao, to whom he handed his game jersey.

"I’m a huge fan. He’s such a talented man and a good person as well. I know all the players were excited about him being at the game. I saw him walk in during the game and I wanted to meet him and have a picture with him,” Beckham said. (Virgil Lopez/Sunnex)