David Beckham will not play in Paris

DOHA, Qatar - The Associated Press

England superstar David Beckham and his family will not leave Los Angeles. AFP photo

David Beckham is set to stay with the Los Angeles Galaxy after turning down a chance to join Paris Saint-Germain, the French club said yesterday.

After weeks of negotiations with PSG, the 36-year-old midfielder and former England captain decided he doesn’t want to move his family from the United States.

“David Beckham is not coming,” PSG President Nasser al-Khelaifi said at the Qatar Open tennis tournament. “David Beckham is in Los Angeles, and he’s going to stay there.”

Beckham will try to finalize a new, improved deal this week with the Galaxy, which was paying him an annual base salary of $6.5 million.

French media had reported that Beckham would have been paid almost double that at PSG, whose Qatari owners have spent more than $100 million on players during six months in charge.

Beckham and wife Victoria, a former member of the “Spice Girls,” moved to California in 2007. The celebrity couple now have four children and decided during a Christmas break in England that they did not want to move back to Europe.