Becks would welcome Keane

England star David Beckham would welcome Roy Keane at Real Madrid.

David Beckham has again expressed his sadness that he was never allowed a chance to say goodbye to the Manchester United fans and would welcome Roy Keane at Real Madrid.

In an exclusive interview with Sky Sports News, the England captain has been speaking about a number of topics including the death of George Best and Ronaldinho's picking up of the Ballon d'Or award on Monday night in Paris.

At the opening of his new David Beckham Academy in London, the Real star opened up about his year in Madrid, admitting the managerial merry-go-round at the club has not helped his cause.

When quizzed on whether he would like to see Keane at Real, he responded: "Of course. I think he's a great player and has definitely got a few more years left in him yet.

"I'd like to see him there but, at the end of the day, there's loads of rumours about him going to different clubs and different teams. Real Madrid was always going to come up at some point so you never know."

As for an Old Trafford return, he admitted: "I think the only thing that could happen is Real playing back there.

"My departure happened so quickly, while I was on holiday. I played in the last two games for United, I scored in the last two games, and never thought I'd be leaving but maybe one day I'll go back.

"I hope, one day, I go back and play for Real Madrid against them, that would be nice."

Beckham wore a black armband in Real's 2-2 draw against Real Sociedad to show his respect for United legend Best and was moved by the tributes over the weekend.

"I think a poignant moment was the Manchester United-West Ham game," he stated. "To see the reaction of another club like West Ham, who had mourned someone as great as Bobby Moore.

"To do what they've done for George Best was incredible. He's been respected all the way through football, not just the Premier League but in different countries.

"Even at the Barcelona game, there was a flag up. He'll be a great loss. He was loved by so many people.

"I had the honour of being sat next to him on Parkinson once and just to listen to him, to hear him speak, his personality. He's a funny guy and brought that onto the pitch with him. He had that sort of personality where he believed he could do anything. He was a great man."

The 30-year-old paid tribute to Wayne Rooney and Ronaldinho, Real's chief tormentor recently, as the Brazilian prepares to pick up the European Footballer of the Year award.

"Wayne can be whoever he wants to be," he smiled. "He's a great player, a great young lad and I've always said he's at the right club to be looked after and brought through.

"If he carries on doing what he's doing, yesterday in the game again he creates chances for players, chances for himself and he's very honoured to have those comparisons [with Best], as he's said.

"Without a doubt [Ronaldinho deserves the award]. He's been proving, not just against us unfortunately but beforehand, he's been the best player around. Rightly so, he deserves it. If he's going to win it tonight, as I'm sure he will, he deserves it.

"He tore us apart at the Bernabeu and to get a standing ovation from our crowd when you're a Barcelona player is very hard."

Analysing 2005 a whole, Beckham admitted there had been ups and downs for him professionally.

"The year with England has ended on a high," he enthused. "Beating Argentina has been exciting for us.

"We're not getting carried away but we can afford to get carried away with the performance as it was very good.

"There's been ups and downs. The defeat to Northern Ireland was tough. We took a lot of criticism - some of it deserved, some of it not.

"We qualified for the World Cup and won our group, which is what we set out to do.

"There's always ups and downs at Real. There's always talk of different managers coming in, different managers coming out. In three years, I've had five different managers, which has been hard.

"But I'm at one of the biggest clubs in the world. I'm happy and my family are happy, that's the good thing."

Beckham is obviously bursting with pride at being able to realise a dream by launching his own soccer schools in his home city.

"It's definitely up there with the achievements that I've won," he said. "I've been lucky as I've achieved a lot in football, winning things for Manchester United, scoring goals for Manchester United. The biggest honour I've had in football is being given the captaincy of the country.

"But this has been a dream of mine for a long time. I thought of it five or six years ago and just wanted to create it. I never dreamt it would be anything like as big as it is but it is a dream come true for me."