Beckham handed England captaincy

It is a remarkable turnaround for the 33-year-old who stepped down as skipper after the 2006 World Cup and was then dropped by former boss Steve McClaren.

The midfielder did regain his place under McClaren but was then made to wait for his 100th cap when current manager Fabio Capello took charge.

Rio Ferdinand, Steven Gerrard and John Terry were Capello's previous skippers.

The Italian is rotating the captaincy among his players before he makes a permanent decision.

Capello said: "When I took over as manager I decided to choose a different captain for each game, and David was on one of the four players I thought of.

"David will be the last captain - but only for this game.

"He played very well against USA in the first half and he starts as captain in the next game. But it is impossible to know what will happen in the future."

Beckham will lead the team out for the 59th time on Sunday and is likely to take charge of an inexperienced England team.