David Beckham moves a step closer to London Olympics dream

 
Golden boy: David Beckham scores for LA Galaxy at the weekend but not everyone want to see him at the Olympics
8 June 2012

David Beckham will be the most notable inclusion when Great Britain's 35-man provisional Olympic squad is submitted later today.

It represents the latest stage in a process that will end with the announcement of Stuart Pearce's final 18-man squad on July 6.

There has been a huge amount of debate around who will be the three overage players in Pearce's squad.

Ryan Giggs, Craig Bellamy, Rio Ferdinand and Frank Lampard have all been mentioned as potential candidates.

Beckham's name has been a constant though, mainly due to the influential role he played in getting the Olympics to London in the first place.

The 37-year-old's popularity remains undimmed, even though he has not played his club football in England for nine years now.

He was greeted with rapturous applause at Wembley on Saturday when given a special award for reaching 100 caps by UEFA, and it is understood the former Manchester United midfielder remains amongst the players Pearce has submitted.

There is little doubt Beckham's presence would help sell tickets for the football event, which features Great Britain's group matches at Old Trafford, Wembley and the Millennium Stadium.

It is yet to be decided whether the FA will formally announce the 35-man squad.

However, it is also believed young goalkeeper Jack Butland remains in the squad.

Although they had previously stated no player who was selected for Euro 2012 would be involved in the Olympics, it is thought Pearce would be willing to bend the rules for Butland, who has been elevated to England's third-choice keeper.

Butland has expressed a desire to remain in Olympic contention, although club side Birmingham would have to sanction the move.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in