Beckham named in Pearce's Team GB list of 80 players

London, Apr 18(ANI): Team Great Britain men's football manager Stuart Pearce has carved down a list of 80 players for the London Olympics, and former Manchester United star David Beckham is one of them.

With 100 days to go before the Games begin, Beckham has now moved an inch closer to fulfilling the last reverie of his career i.e. to play for Great Britain in the London Olympics.

Pearce's list also includes former Chelsea star Joe Cole, who is on a season-long loan at Lille in France, and Liverpool's firebrand Wales forward, Craig Bellamy.

According to the Daily Mirror, Tottenham Hotspurs' Wales winger Gareth Bale, West Brom's Northern Ireland midfielder Chris Brunt, Crystal Palace right back Nathaniel Clyne and Chelsea's Josh McEachran, are other players competing for places in Pearce's final 18-man squad.

Wolves' Scotland forward Steven Fletcher and Birmingham's highly rated young goalkeeper, Jack Butland, are on Pearce's radar, too.

But it is the inclusion of Beckham that will create most debate as he closes in on his ambition of captaining the side.

Beckham's insertion in the GB team would be popular with fans but the fact that he is even being considered has been derided by some critics who feel he does not deserve to be one of Pearce's three permitted over-23 players. (ANI)