It is reasonably safe to assume that Antony Jenkins, the chief executive of Barclays, and David Beckham, the footballing megastar, rarely have much in common.

But on the last day of January, as the football transfer window was swinging shut and with Barclays facing fresh regulatory investigations (this time over money it received from Qatar at the height of the financial crisis), these two very different men's lives briefly overlapped when they both turned down huge amounts of cash.