Beckham in top three of England's most capped list

David Beckham remains a legend wherever he goes. As soon as the Milan fans heard the news that the England midfielder would be joining their team in January on a short-loan period, they rushed to buy the Rossoneri shirts bearing his name.

In Minsk, in England's 3-1 win over Belarus, Beckham's late substitution shot him to third place overall in the international appearance all-time list. He is now on the 107-mark and just one match short of the late Bobby Moore, who is second behind goalkeeper Peter Shilton.

In the list, Beckham has just overtaken his number one hero Bobby Charlton, another former Manchester United great.

The top ten list reads: 125 Peter Shilton; 108 Bobby Moore; 107 David Beckham; 106 Bobby Charlton; 105 Billy Wright; 90 Bryan Robson; 89 Michael Owen; 86 Kenny Sansom; 85 Gary Neville; 84 Ray Wilkins.

Other football pieces of interest in October read:

• In the Champions League group phase, Liverpool beat PSV 3-1 at home and Chelsea draw 0-0 away at CFR-Cluj.

• Four of the six British teams in the UEFA Cup advance to the group stages of the competition. Aston Villa, Portsmouth, Manchester City and Tottenham progress at the expense of Lovech (4-2 aggregate), Guimaraes (4-2), O. Nicosia (4-2) and Wisla Krakow (3-2) respectively. Everton and Motherwell bow out to Standard Liege (3-4) and Nancy (0-2).

• In the Scottish Premier League, Celtic duo Gordon Strachan and Georgios Samaras are voted Manager and Player of the Month.

• Following Tottenham's 0-1 home defeat to Hull, the Londoners remain on three points from eight matches... their worst start to a season in 96 years.

• Liverpool's opener in the 3-2 win at Manchester City is the club's 1,000th goal in Premier League football.

• England move up one place to 14th in the October FIFA rankings.

• The monthly awards for September go to Hull's Phil Brown (manager) and Ashley Young (player) of Aston Villa.

• In the first leg of the U-21 play-off, England beat Wales 3-2 (Wheater, Johnson, Agbonlahor − Church 2) in Cardiff.

• At Wembley, England topple Kazakhstan 5-1 (Ferdinand, Kuchma og, Rooney 2, Defoe).

Other World Cup qualifiers: Wales-Liechtenstein 2-0 (Edwards, Evans), Scotland-Norway 0-0.

Under-21 progress

• England reach the U-21 Championship finals in Sweden (next summer) after a 2-2 draw (4-4 aggregate) at home to Wales (Huddlestone, Vokes og − Ramsey, Church) at Villa Park.

• Fabio Capello's England set a new record start to a World Cup campaign, having won their fourth straight qualifier in Belarus 3-1 (Gerrard, Rooney 2).

Other outcomes: Northern Ireland-San Marino 4-0 (Healy, McCann, Lafferty, Davis), Germany-Wales 1-0, Ireland-Cyprus 1-0 (Keane).

• Arsenal thrash Fenerbahce 5-2 away in a Champions League group phase encounter.

More results: Manchester United-Celtic 3-0, Chelsea-Roma 1-0, Atletico Madrid-Liverpool 1-1.

• Aston Villa beat Ajax 2-1 at home in their first group match of the UEFA Cup. Tottenham go down 0-2 at Udinese while Portsmouth lost 0-2 in Braga.

• Chelsea's formidable record run at home of 86 consecutive matches without defeat in the Premier League is broken as they go down 0-1 to Liverpool.

• Cristiano Ronaldo, of Manchester United, is named FifPro World Footballer of the Year. Four other Premier League Players are also in the Team of the Year - John Terry (Chelsea), Rio Ferdinand (Manchester United), Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres (both Liverpool).

• Before the 1-2 upset at Tottenham, Liverpool's eight wins and two draws see them attain the best start by any team in Premier League history.

Leading marksmen

FA Premiership

8 − Anelka (Chelsea), Zaki (Wigan).

6 − Agbonlahor (Aston Villa), Ronaldo (Manchester United), Robinho (Manchester City).

The Championship

11 − McCormack (Cardiff), Doyle (Reading).

10 − Ebanks-Blake (Wolves).

Scottish Premier

8 − Boyd (Rangers), Samaras (Celtic).

5 − Mehmet (St Mirren), Miller (Rangers), Sutton (Motherwell).