Barcelona Voters Seeing Stars Before Elections

By Kevin Fylan

MADRID, June 4 (Reuters) - The surfeit of stories linking David Beckham with Barcelona in the middle of the club's presidential election campaign shows just how strongly the Figo effect is still felt in the Catalan capital.

The 95,000 club members eligible to vote in the June 15 poll have been seeing stars ever since elections were called in early May.

Beckham has been the big story, with candidate Joan Laporta said to have tied up a deal to sign the England captain should he win the election, but other world renowned players have also been named as possible signings.

Laporta has also been linked with negotiations over the recruitment of Thierry Henry, despite recent reports that the French striker had renewed his contract with Arsenal.

Lluis Bassat, the advertising mogul beaten by Joan Gaspart three years ago and a strong favourite this time, has secured the services of former captain Pep Guardiola as sporting director and the prospect of Ronald Koeman returning as coach has already been mooted.

Josep Maria Minguella claims to have four world class players ready to join should he win the election, while Jaume Llaurado is said to have Ajax Amsterdam's Romanian defender Cristian Chivu signed, sealed and waiting to be delivered.

Other players continually being linked with Barca in the Catalan sports press include Manchester United's Ruud van Nistelrooy and Deportivo Coruna's Roy Makaay, as well as a good few members of the current Real Madrid squad.

SURPRISE WIN

What most of the candidates are searching for is the sort of headline-grabbing deal that took Florentino Perez to a surprise win over the incumbent Lorenzo Sanz in Real Madrid's presidential election three years ago.

Sanz had brought the club two European Cup wins in three seasons and started the campaign as an overwhelming favourite but the election was turned on its head when Perez revealed he had agreed a deal to sign Luis Figo from Barcelona.

After weeks of denials from the player, Perez won the election and duly made good on his promise to bring in the Portuguese forward for $56 million, then a world record fee.

Figo's move to Real gutted a club long associated with being a natural home for the world's best players, with the likes of Johan Cruyff, Maradona, Romario, Ronaldo and Rivaldo all having graced the Nou Camp stage over the years.

Since Figo's departure, the club have failed to win a title and have had to watch as Real have re-established themselves as the world's most attractive club, adding Zinedine Zidane and Ronaldo to their squad in the last two seasons.

For the moment it is difficult to gauge how much credence to give to stories involving the would-be Florentinos at Barcelona and the game's biggest names.

The Beckham story has had most tongues wagging, with reports in Britain and Spain claiming that Laporta's envoy Sandro Rosell met Manchester United chief executive Peter Kenyon in London to discuss a deal worth 30 million pounds ($49 million).

United said they would not comment on the story on Wednesday, while Laporta's election team were unavailable to talk.

The truth behind all the rumours will not come out until the new president takes office on June 16 -- and that leaves a lot of time for more name-dropping and star-gazing at a club desperate to regain some of its former glamour.