Beckham too old for England - Capello

WEMBLEY, England (AP):

David Beckham's record-breaking England career appears to be over after coach Fabio Capello indicated yesterday that the former captain is too old to play again for the national team.

The 35-year-old midfielder has played 115 times for England, second behind only goalkeeper Peter Shilton's 125 from 1970-90.

Beckham missed out on a fourth World Cup after tearing an Achilles tendon in March while on loan to AC Milan from the Los Angeles Galaxy to stay in shape for England during the Major League Soccer off season. He resumed training yesterday in Los Angeles.

Ahead of England's friendly against Hungary, Capello told British broadcaster ITV that Beckham is "probably a bit too old" to play for England again, adding "thank you, David".

Beckham, who began his career at Manchester United in 1992, made his England debut against Moldova in September 1996.

The low point of his international career came at his first World Cup, in 1998, when he was sent off for petulantly kicking out at Argentina midfielder Diego Simeone.

Tearfully relinquished

Beckham managed to bounce back and captained the team at the 2002 World Cup under coach Sven-Goran Eriksson.

Beckham tearfully relinquished the England captaincy after the 2006 tournament when England reached the quarter-finals for the second successive time. He was then initially dropped by coach Steve McClaren, but was restored as England's qualifying campaign for the 2008 European Championship faltered.

Despite initially falling out of favour under Capello before being restored to the team when both were at Real Madrid, Beckham's international career survived when the Italian coach took over from McClaren.