Former Barcelona reveals how close they came to signing David Beckham in 2003

Former Barcelona president Joan Laporta has revealed Barcelona agreed a fee with Manchester United to sign David Beckham in 2003, but later decided to sign Ronaldinho instead because the player dragged his heels over personal terms.

Beckham moved to the Bernabeu that summer instead, but it was Barcelona who were first tipped to land the former England captain after he had fallen out with Sir Alex Ferguson.

Speaking to Marca, Laporta revealed that the club had one marquee signing in mind that year, and that Beckham had initially been top priority. Beckham did become the first English player to have won league titles in four countries - England, Spain, USA and France - and seemingly did it all in his illustrious career which spanned over twenty years.

His range of passing, crossing ability, and not to mention his deadly free-kicks led him to being thrust into the football spotlight, and after twelve years at United, Real Madrid came calling and Beckham ended up s igning for the Spanish giants for £24.5m on a four-year contract.

However, reportedly Laporta had struck a deal in principle with the Red Devils to take Beckham to the Nou Camp prior to his deal with Real Madrid, however an agreement between Beckham's representatives and the club could not found - which led Barcelona to look elsewhere.

Laporta said of the events surrounding Beckham: "It was between Beckham, Ronaldinho or (Thierry) Henry. United told us that they would sell him to us if we won the (presidential) election as we didn't have the power at that time.

"But they used us and in the end he signed for Madrid. We met at Heathrow Airport and signed a document which said that they would sell him to us if we struck an agreement with the agent.

"However, we didn't manage to do that. We went to Nice and stayed with him and he said he would think about it. We got fed up of waiting on an answer, so we signed Ronaldinho instead."

Barca obviously didn't fair too badly in the end as they were able to secure the Brazilian legend's signature - and he went on to play over 140 games for the club as well as win the Ballon d'Or during his time at the Nou Camp.