Beckham's Golden ball

Portugal sink England

The ball that David Beckham blazed over the bar during England's Euro 2004 shoot-out with Portugal has attracted bids of nearly £7m on ebay.

But the internet auction website has had to dismiss most of the major offers because they are unable to verify them as genuine.

As of Thursday afternoon, the largest "proper" bid stood at £15,776.

Beckham's spot-kick sailed into the stands at the begininng of a tense quarter-final penalty competition.

The England captain put the blame on a mound of dirt by the spot, but could not have imagined the money his mis-kick might generate.

The Spanish fan who caught the ball put it up for auction on the internet after hearing a British newspaper was ready to pay £12,000.

Pablo Carral, 25, admitted at the time: "The incredible thing was that the ball reached us because we were so far from the goal.

"As I left the stadium, I was guarded by two friends whilst I hid it in my clothes."

Now he could be laughing all the way to the bank.

A Spanish ebay spokesman admitted they had been desperately trying to distinguish the phony bids from the genuine ones.

"Nothing like this has ever occurred in Spain before," he told Spanish news agency Europa Press.

So who's got the ball from the Turkey game?

"We are having to check out each bid with our departments in other countries and are trying to cancel out those we believe to be false."

The ball, which is embossed with the names of the two teams, the venue and the date of the contest, attracted an opening offer of just one Euro (66p) but bidding has since spiralled out of control.

The auction is open until July 22, with ebay insisting bids can only be withdrawn in "special circumstances".

Carral has kindly offered to pay full delivery costs when sending the ball to its new owner.