How David Beckham stopped Barcelona signing Petr Cech

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Martin Macdonald | Writer

Content writer covering football, formula 1 and movies

Petr Cech was reportedly extremely close to joining Barcelona back in 2003.

After joining Chelsea in February of 2004, the Czech Republic international became one of the greatest goalkeepers the Premier League had ever seen and a lynchpin of Jose Mourinho's dominant side of the mid noughties.

With the Blues, he won four Premier League titles, four FA Cup titles, three League Cups, one Champions League and one Europa League.

He would eventually move to rivals, Arsenal, in 2015.

However, things could have looked different for both Chelsea and Barcelona had Cech went through with a proposal to sign for the Blaugrana before president-elect Joan Laporta pulled the plug.

Laporta won the Barcelona presidential election off a promise to sign David Beckham from Manchester United.

Pavel Zika, Cech's former agent, told Sport that an agreement was in place with another candidate, Lluís Bassat, to sign his client.

“I met with the leading candidate for the presidency of the club several times and in the third meeting we were finalising the details," Zika confirmed.

"And then, a discreet Barcelona lawyer, Mr. Laporta, who was an outsider, second or third in the polls, pulled an ace out of his sleeve a few days before the elections: ‘I will bring David Beckham’.

"That changed everything and the people gave their vote to Mr. Laporta.”

Ironically, Barcelona didn't actually sign Beckham, who completed a high-profile switch to rivals Real Madrid in the summer of 2003.

The alternative wasn't bad, though, as Ronaldinho arrived at Camp Nou to become the best player on the planet, winning the Ballon d'Or and ushering in a new, glorious era for Barca.

“During his time at Barça, he (Ronaldinho) became the best player in the world, so in the end it went well, but in that way Cech was left without his signing for Barça," Zika added.

"To this day, that is my unfulfilled wish. We shed a tear for it together with Petr and his wife Martina, but we kept going. The end of that beautiful story was that, in January 2004, half a year before the European Championship, we closed the transfer of Cech to Chelsea.”

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