WITNESS: Never the same after the Beckhams came to town

By Simon Baskett

MADRID (Reuters) - The choreographed film-star presentation, the photo-hungry paparazzi, the horde of English journalists that descended on Real Madrid's training ground, all this should have warned me that things were about to change.

I had been writing about Spanish football for over seven years, chronicling the fortunes of the leading clubs, their larger-than-life presidents and big-name players, but nothing prepared me for the arrival in 2003 of the David Beckham circus.

More often than not I had been the only English journalist present at training, the atmosphere was relaxed, interviews were easy, exclusives common.

Even after the arrival of Luis Figo, Zinedine Zidane and Ronaldo you could still have an individual chat to the players as they emerged from the changing rooms. Not any more.

I had thought Beckham would be like other Galactico signings - a few weeks of mayhem and then back to business as usual.

I had been out of Britain for nearly a decade and hadn't realised "Goldenballs" was more than just a famous footballer.

His long-term association with the most romantic club in English football, his tribulations after the 1998 World Cup, his good looks and careful image cultivation, his celebrity marriage to Posh Spice, all meant he transcended the boundaries of the sport and became part of the cultural fabric.

Don't try and visualise it, but Beckham was Bobby Moore, Princess Diana and Paris Hilton all rolled into one.