Beckham image rights key to Real Madrid deal

Real Madrid sports chief Jorge Valdano has revealed that David Beckham agreed to release his image rights to sign with the Spanish giants.

Beckham agreed to give 50 per cent of every personal contract Real negotiate now that he is their player.

That brings him in line with the rest of Real's squad, including Ronaldo, Raul and Zinedine Zidane.

Beckham was paid £20,000 per week at Manchester United, out of a wage of £90,000 per week, in exchange for his image rights.

Valdano said: "It was the key to the negotiations. We demand 50 per cent of our players' image rights. We consider this issue indispensable because the other players have followed this policy."

"In the case of Beckham it was more complicated because his potential image is very impressive, but the player agreed. This agreement marked the player's wish to come to Real Madrid even by losing money."

Valdano also confirmed that Real's offer was less than what Barcelona had bid for the midfielder.

"The information we have is that Barcelona were trying to get Beckham for a bigger fee than we were offering."

"So this is due to Beckham's decision to join us rather than Barcelona, which helped us to come to an agreement with Manchester faster than would have been possible, in fact in a record time for us."