Capello gets a ‘Real’ shock in Madrid, loses job

You should not mess with superstar players – this was the hidden message as Real Madrid fired coach Fabio Capello, ostensibly for his shabby handling of David Beckham. Just two weeks back, Capello had guided the club to their first Spanish league title since 2003 and had two more years to go on his contract before Real Madrid showed him the door. Story doing the rounds at Bernabeu is that the club would appoint Getafe coach Bernd Schuster. Real’s Sporting Director Predrag Mijatovic said It was a difficult decision but a unanimous one. Since joining from Juventus last year, Capello did a fair job bit his soured relation with Beckham proved his undoing. Beckham’s decision to join LA Galaxy did not go down well with Capello who promptly announced that he would not field the former England captain in his first team ever. The coach, however, had to field the player and incidentally, Beckham came up with a scintillating display to leave the coach with eggs all over his face. Real was desperate to retain Beckham but the player felt it was too late. Subsequently, it was Capello who earned the wrath of the club management and had to pay the price with his job.