Beckham says it is 100 not out

David Beckham believes he can carry on playing for England after winning his 100th cap in the 1-0 defeat by France.

Beckham insists he proved his fitness to manager Fabio Capello by playing the first 63 minutes of the friendly in Paris, then set his sights on winning even more caps.

Beckham said: "It is 100 not out as far as I am concerned. The wave at the end was not a goodbye, just a thank you.

"I spoke in the week about how honoured I would be to get to the 100-cap mark and I'm very proud. To achieve 100 caps doesn't happen every day and to have my family at the game, and the support of the fans, was incredible."

Beckham was applauded by all sides of the 78,500 crowd at the Stade de France when he was replaced by David Bentley in the second half.

He added: "The reception when I came off from both sets of fans was amazing. You obviously expect it off your own fans and I thank them for that but from the French people as well, it was an amazing standing ovation."

Beckham has not played a competitive match since October, when the domestic season in America came to an end, but he hopes Capello was convinced by his physical performance.

He said: "The most important thing for me was to prove my fitness and I felt that I did that. I felt very fresh and a lot better than I thought I would.

"As much as you work hard in pre-season, there is nothing better than playing in games and I enjoyed it.

"Playing under Capello before, he knows what I'm like as a player so on that side, you don't have to prove anything but proving my fitness was good. That was the biggest thing."

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