Becks in his Glad rags

The hair is familiar, as is the ball at his feet, but the clothes are a departure, even for David Beckham. Real Madrid's new £25 million signing is playing the part of a Roman gladiator as he lines up next to his new team mates in one of the most expensive television adverts ever made.

Beckham, on a £500,000 deal with Pepsi, was part of a footballing cast valued at more than £120 million on the transfer market, filming the commercial in Spain.

The England captain, in leather boots and a tunic with his name written on the back, appeared alongside Real Madrid stars Raul and Roberto Carlos.

Pepsi took over the Plaza Major square in Medinaceli, 120 miles from Madrid, paying each property owner £600 for the use of the front of their houses, while some 60 private security guards kept the public away while the 90-second advertisement was filmed.

It is a homage to the Russell Crowe film Gladiator, and follows the spaghetti-Western themed Pepsi advert earlier this year.

Beckham was on set for seven hours in scorching temperatures. A source said: "It's hard trying to keep it secret when the whole world is watching Becks's every move. Like the previous Wild West ad, it's highly stylised with a quirky twist at the end."

Beckham flew into Madrid on Sunday night in a private jet and stayed at the Hesperia hotel. The Pepsi deal is one of several sponsorship tieins, also including Vodafone and Marks & Spencer, that earn the 27-year-old £6 million a year. The 15th century Plaza Major has been overhauled to make it look like an authentic medieval marketplace.

Houses surrounding the square have been covered with special facades to make them look older and the square has been covered in thousands of tonnes of earth.

For the earlier commercial, Beckham joined Manchester United team mates Gary Neville, Juan Sebastian Veron, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Ryan Giggs along with his future Real Madrid team mates.

The advertisement, based on a Western-style shoot-out at the OK Corral, was also filmed in Spain - in Almeria - and saw Beckham challenge the Real contingent to a penalty shoot-out after one of them stole his drink.

In that commercial, he wore a stetson and his famous number seven shirt. Beckham said at the time that he had no plans to move into acting full term.

"I don't know about following this up at the end of my career," said Beckham, who was recently told by American acting coaches he did not have a future on the screen.

"I enjoy these commercials a lot more now because I am not as nervous.

"It is nice to do these kind of things, it helps take your mind of the pressures of football for a while, they are usually very memorable."