David Beckham has no intention of remaining at Real Madrid despite the club president's desire to persuade the former England captain to stay on in Spain.

Ramon Calderon said yesterday he would talk to Beckham in an attempt to convince the midfielder to trigger an escape clause on his agreement to move to MLS side LA Galaxy.

However, Beckham's camp said there was no chance of the 32-year-old backing out of his $250-million deal to join the Galaxy when the Spanish season finishes.

"There is no change to David's plans," a spokesman said. "He is looking forward to playing in the US and looking forward to trying to help Real Madrid win the league title (this year). He loves Real Madrid and loves the club's fans, but he is also set on taking up his new challenge in the US."

Sources close to the player said there was no escape clause in Beckham's contract but they expected Real to make a bid to try and keep him at the club.

Spanish media have reported that Beckham could back out of the deal with LA Galaxy if he paid compensation of some 10 million and Calderon said he would try to set up a meeting to keep the player at the club.

"Beckham has shown that he is a great player with great honour," Calderon said. "He is playing at a very high level and yesterday (Saturday) he battled away against (Real) Zaragoza even though he was half injured.

"We will have to sit down with him, his representatives and (Real's sporting director Predrag) Mijatovic to look at this clause and decide what to do," said Calderon.

"But I would love him to stay at the club. There was some anger with his premature announcement of his departure, but now we are going to do all we can to make him stay," he added.

Calderon's position has changed dramatically since he reacted angrily to Beckham's announcement in January that he would not renew his Madrid contract and would instead be leaving Spain for the US. He accused the Englishman of "toying with Madrid" and being "half an actor, bound for Hollywood".

He also claimed Beckham's destination was determined by the fact that "no one wanted him" and told FabioCapello not to select him.

Now Beckham stands just 90 minutes away from the dream finish to his Spanish career: a first trophy since joining Real Madrid four years ago.

Although he was quick to insist Madrid have won nothing yet, a home match against nothing-to-play-for Real Mallorca on Sunday is all that stands between him and a league title, thanks to 18 seconds so dramatically far-fetched the Englishman suggested a higher force must be on his side.

With just over a minute remaining of the penultimate week of the Spanish season, Real Madrid were trailing 2-1 to Real Zaragoza through two goals from the Argentinian striker Diego Milito. Meanwhile, Barcelona were leading Espanyol by the same scoreline, with Lionel Messi emulating Diego Maradona for the second time in a month, repeating the infamous Hand of God goal against England to punch past the visitors' Cameroonian goalkeeper, Idriss Kameni, for the first and then scoring legitimately for the second.

It meant Barcelona were three points clear of their great rivals.

Then Ruud van Nistelrooy scored his second to make it 2-2 at La Romareda. The lead was down to two points, but 18 seconds later, Raul Tamudo scored his second of the night to equalise at Camp Nou.

Barca were level on points once more, with Madrid top because of their superior head-to-head record (Madrid beat Barcelona 2-0 at home and drew 3-3 on the road).

"You have to have a little bit of luck," said Beckham, who hobbled through the closing stages of the match but hopes to be fit to face Mallorca. "Someone is watching us up there, you know, because in the last few games we've had a lot go our way."

That is something of an understatement: Madrid have come back to win each of their previous six matches. They defeated Recreativo Huelva 3-2 in the last minute three weeks ago to maintain the top spot they had secured seven days earlier thanks to a dramatic 4-3 win over Espanyol and a goal gifted by Barcelona against Real Betis the following night.

"I have never experienced anything like it in my life," said van Nistelrooy, as fans, players and even Madrid president Calderon rushed on to the pitch in Zaragoza.

"I saw people celebrating my goal and I ran back to the centre circle so as not to waste time. I was thinking 'we need another goal here' and I couldn't understand why they were still celebrating. Then I looked up at the scoreboard and saw that Espanyol had equalised at the same time. I couldn't believe it. It's impossible to describe the feeling I got when I saw that. I thought all was lost."

Guardian Service