Barcelona's new signing Ronaldinho is in a different class to Real Madrid's latest acquisition David Beckham, according to Brazilian forward Denilson.

"Ronaldinho is far better than Beckham," the Real Betis player was quoted as saying of his international colleague by Spanish sports daily Marca Tuesday.

"No one doubts that Beckham strikes the ball as well as anyone else in the world, but he doesn't beat men or have the individual close control.

"On the other hand Ronaldinho has a host of other skills as well as being able to shoot well at goal. He has been demonstrating it ever since he started out at Gremio and will always be a different class of player."

Both players have made promising starts at their new clubs.

Ronaldinho, who joined Barca for up to $34.18 million from Paris St. Germain last month, turned in a series of eye-catching performances against high-class opponents AC Milan, Juventus and Manchester United on the club's recent pre-season tour of the United States.

Beckham, who cost Real five million euros more than the Brazilian, has also appeared to settle in quickly at Real, scoring his first goal for his new club in their 3-0 victory against FC Tokyo Tuesday.

But Denilson, who bore the onerous tag as the world's most expensive player when he moved from Sao Paulo to Betis for $35 million in 1997, believes that, although Beckham was Barcelona's first choice signing, the Catalans got a better deal when they ended up buying Ronaldinho.

"Barcelona have gained much more by getting Ronaldinho than Real have by buying Beckham," he said. "He (Ronaldinho) has always been a quality player, he gives lots of scoring passes and always does something to help the team."

Denilson's Betis play Real Madrid on the opening weekend of the Spanish league season at the end of August.

($1=.8776 Euro)

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