Beckham heads for his ton as Capello calls

Beckham, who will join an exclusive group comprising Billy Wright, Sir Bobby Charlton, Bobby Moore and Peter Shilton, was today named in Fabio Capello's initial 30-man squad for the friendly international against France.

The 32-year-old midfielder was in New York at an award ceremony last night but will return to England over the weekend and team up with the squad on Monday.

Capello will reduce his squad to 23 on Saturday, but Beckham is certain to among them and will play some part in Paris.

The new England coach, who left Beckham out of his first squad against Switzerland because he was not fit enough, has seen sufficient improvement to include him this time.

Beckham, though, has competition for a starting place since Arsenal's Theo Walcott is also in today's squad along with Blackburn's David Bentley and Chelsea's Shaun Wright-Phillips.

It was also predicted that Aaron Lennon would be included following his omission from Stuart Pearce's Under-21 squad for next Tuesday's match against Poland, but there was no place for the Tottenham winger.

Middlesbrough's impressive central defender David Wheater is included for the first time, while Matthew Upson is named despite missing West Ham's last two games with a calf injury. However, the spotlight will once again fall on Beckham.

For his debut match in charge last month, Capello resisted the calls for Beckham to be awarded his 100th cap. The Italian wanted to send out a strong message that no one could be guaranteed a place.

But Capello's right-hand man, Franco Baldini, travelled to Dallas last weekend to assess Beckham's fitness and talk with his LA Galaxy coach, Ruud Gullit.

He returned with a positive report which has prompted Capello to include Beckham.

Galaxy president and general manager Alexi Lalas said today: "England are getting a player who is healthy, fit, motivated and ready to help the team. He's ready to go."

Even so, the award of Beckham's 100th senior cap in the Stade de France would be a surprise for those who believed Capello would wait until England play the United States at Wembley in May.

Chelsea pair John Terry and Frank Lampard are both back after missing the Switzerland match through injury. But if Terry is true to his word and is named captain, he will step aside and let Beckham take over the role.

THE SQUAD

James (Portsmouth)
Carson (A Villa)
Kirkland (Wigan)
Lescott (Everton)
Johnson (Portsmouth)
Wheater (Middlesboro)
Barry (A Villa)
Woodgate (Tottenham)
Brown (Man Utd)
Ferdinand (Man Utd)
Upson (West Ham)
Terry (Chelsea)
A Cole (Chelsea)
Bridge (Chelsea)
Hargreaves (Man Utd)
Gerrard (Liverpool)
Jenas (Tottenham)
Beckham (LA Galaxy)
Lampard (Chelsea)
J Cole, (Chelsea)
Wright-Phillips (Chelsea)
Downing (Middlesboro)
Owen (Newcastle)
Rooney (Man Utd)
Crouch (Liverpool)
Defoe (Portsmouth)
Walcott (Arsenal)
Bentley (Blackburn)
Agbonlahor (A Villa)
Young (A Villa)