Beckham Keen To Keep Captain Role

David Beckham wants to stay on as England captain after the World Cup and wear the armband at the new Wembley.

Beckham, 31, toured the building site with the squad and said: "I'd love to lead the team out at this stadium."

Steve McClaren must decide whether to keep Beckham in the top job when he succeeds Sven-Goran Eriksson as England coach after the World Cup.

"The manager will decide and when Steve takes over he will decide on that," Beckham continued. "For now I'm the captain and I will lead the team into this World Cup and hopefully be successful. After that, we'll wait and see."

Former skipper Bryan Robson is just one of those tipping John Terry and Steve Gerrard as possible successors.

Tuesday's tour was Beckham's first trip back to Wembley since England's last game there, a 1-0 defeat to Germany in 2000.

"It was one of my worst moments in an England shirt. I don't want that to be my last experience of Wembley and hopefully it won't be," he said. "It wasn't nice walking down the tunnel after that game. The memories are still there."

The new 90,000-seat Wembley will not stage an England match until next February at the earliest.

Whether captain or not, Beckham refused to rule out the idea of playing in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

"I'm feeling good. I'm going into this competition without any broken bones," he added. "I feel great physically and mentally it's perfect. I believe there's at least another four or five years left in my legs and I hope that's as an England player as well as a Real Madrid player."