David Beckham to Be Released By Real Madrid During the Summer

David Beckham will leave Real Madrid in the summer, the club's sporting director Predrag Mijatovic has confirmed.

"Beckham will leave us, we will not renew his contract," revealed Mijatovic when quizzed on the future of the former England international, whose current contract expires in June.

Real had previously stated their desire to resolve the long-running Beckham contract issue one way or the other by the end of next week, and further talks were thought to be due to take place. But Mijatovic has decided to curtail negotiations with immediate effect.

Beckham joined Real in July 2003 from Manchester United and was quickly labelled a 'galactico'. But he has failed to win a trophy at the Bernabéu and could now be set to make a return to England. Clubs from across Europe and the United States are also believed to be monitoring Beckham's situation, including the Los Angeles Galaxy.

A move to the US is more likely now Major League Soccer has implemented the new 'Designated Player Rule' which allows clubs to sign players whose salary will fall outside the team salary budget. However, MLS director of communications Will Kuhns refused to be drawn on the prospect of Beckham playing in America. "It is not our policy to discuss specific players who do not yet play in our league," he said. "Obviously a designated player rule has just been passed allowing our teams to bring in a certain level of player and maybe things will happen with that in the summer window."

Mijatovic's declaration ties in with Real coach Fabio Capello's squad announcement for tomorrow's Copa del Rey game with Real Betis, where Beckham was one of six senior players who has been left out. Beckham, along with Ronaldo, Antonio Cassano, Michel Salgado, Francisco Pavon and Alvaro Mejia, were omitted from Capello's 18-man squad for "technical reasons".

This news comes in the wake of Monday's emergency meeting, where the coach met with Real president Ramón Calderón , Mijatovic and technical secretary Franco Baldini to discuss the club's poor form. Real have lost three of their last four league matches, with the latest setback coming on Sunday when they were beaten 2-0 by a Deportivo La Coruña side which had previously gone nine games without a victory.

Mijatovic revealed after the meeting that the problems facing Real had been pinpointed, and solutions devised that would be implemented over time. Capello did not go into detail about his decision to omit Beckham, Ronaldo and co for the cup match during his press conference on Wednesday, instead saying he would be giving some new faces a chance to shine.

"Tomorrow we are going to see some small changes, we are going to put out some different players," the Italian said. "In the last two games, we have lost the character and desire which we had up until that point. That is what has annoyed me most. When I arrived I said we had to fight for the shirt, recover our values and I have not seen this. We have taken measures to solve this. One of them is to train behind closed doors in order to have total concentration. We have analysed a lot of things and what has happened on the last few games."