Beckham will lead out the Three Lions in two crucial World Cup qualifiers against Northern Ireland and Azerbaijan next week and at the age of 29 he is more fired up than ever.

The England Captain launched his new David Beckham Academy in east London this week and announced he will spend his time coaching children when he eventually retires from the game.

But with two more years left on his contract at Real Madrid, hopes of extending it beyond that and so many good times to come with England, there is no way he is hanging up his boots just yet.

"I'm still very ambitious," said Beckham.

"I want to win as much as I can. I've been so lucky because there are a lot of players who go through their careers and don't win anything and don't win England caps.

"At the moment I'm on 78 England caps, I have six championship medals, an FA Cup and European Cup. But ideally I just want to do it all again and keep winning trophies.

"But most of all I would be disappointed if I didn't win anything internationally. People sometimes say to me do I think I would have been a failure if I don't win anything with England.

"I wouldn't say that, but of course I would be disappointed because I believe this current bunch of lads are some of the best players in Europe. And I believe we can win things."

In fact, Beckham believes if England can make it through to the World Cup Finals in Germany in 2006 they stand a fantastic chance of success - especially after reaching the quarter-finals in Japan and the quarter-finals of Euro 2004 as well.

Beckham said: "What's better about 2006 is that it's in Europe and we don't have to acclimatise for any weather. It sounds like excuses but it's tough for European players to play in those conditions. But with it being in Germany this time you never know.

"Everyone knows of what I think of Mr Eriksson as a manager and as a person - and I believe we have got a good experienced team and also a young team with a lot of young players coming through.

"I believe we can win something and it would be disappointing at the end of my career if we hadn't won something. But I still believe we can go on to do that. We have to keep those goals in our mind."

Beckham won't be getting too carried away, however, because the job of qualifying for Germany still isn't complete - and next week's games against Northern Ireland at Old Trafford and Azerbaijan at St James' Park, Newcastle, will not be easy.

"I've heard some people say they are home bankers but the players don't look at it like that and no-one else should because football is a funny old game," admitted Beckham. 

"We've done well to be in the position we're in but we have to carry it on. We're not qualified yet. We have two tough games coming up and we need to win them.

"There are no easy games in football these days and that's the way we look at these two games. It doesn't matter that it's at home and we have the fans on our side, we need to perform. Then we can look forward to some exciting times in future."