IBGerm

At halftime of Sunday’s 2-2 tie with AC Milan, Beckham walked toward the "L.A. Riot Squad" section of the stadium and motioned to a fan to come closer. The man jumped down from the seats and was arrested by police for trespassing.

Afterward, Beckham said he’d wanted to shake the fan’s hand. "One of the guys was saying things that really wasn’t very nice," he said after the game, according to the Los Angeles Times. "It was stepping over the line. I said, ‘You need to calm down and come shake my hand,’ and he jumped over." But fans in the section, who booed Beckham every time he touched the ball and displayed banners reading "Go Home Fraud" and "23: Repent," told the Times that Beckham was not blameless in the altercation and used foul language. "He called the guy out," said Eric Lewis of Los Angeles, a member of the fan group, according to the report. "He called out a drunk fan. How stupid is that? He’s the player. He’s the professional. He should have kept himself under control. He didn’t."

Another Riot Squad member, Jeff Austin of Highland Park, said in an e-mail to the Times that Beckham’s actions were "way out of line for a professional athlete," according to the report. "Anything that he says putting the blame entirely on the fan is nothing short of a complete lie," he added. Riot Squad member Bob Ramsey, a theology professor and minister from Glendora, said he talked to fans who were closest to where the fan jumped the wall. "I haven’t talked to everybody, but no one remembers hearing anything beyond ‘scum,’ ‘traitor,’ those kinds of things. Nothing about his family," Ramsey said. Ramsey said he thought what triggered Beckham’s reaction was a fan abusing a Beckham jersey, according to the report. "We were giving him the business as soon as he came out for warmups," Ramsey said, according to the Times. "His first reaction was to give us a thumbs-up and I thought, ‘OK, he’s going to play along with it and just realize that we’re going to kind of give him a hard time here and he’s going to have to play through it.’ "I honestly think if he had done that everything would have been fine. At halftime, he seemed to see something when he was running off the field and he came over and was challenging the guys in the front of our section," he said, according to the report.

Monday, Galaxy coach and GM Bruce Arena said the team regretted the incident.

Now, if that doesn’t get your goat and want to send hate to the Beckham camp, we find out…

He told the Rossoneri’s website he’ll return to Serie A at the end of the MLS season but Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani has insisted the club won’t be buying him. "I hope to return to play for Milan," Beckham said. "They have remained in my heart and honestly I am confident I will greet them again in November.

"Leonardo wants me in Rossonero immediately? It’s really pleasing to see that I have left good memories.”This has led to speculation he is looking for a move away, with Tottenham and Chelsea also credited with interest in him. But Milan say the financial implications are too great.

"There’s no possibility for him to come sooner,” Galliani said. "David knows that the doors of Milanello are always open for him, his lawyers also know that. I hope he returns in January, but before then he won’t because that’s when the market reopens even though he finishes there at the end of November. "There are insurmountable financial obstacles. The most likely hypothesis is that Beckham plays for us from January until the end of the season and then returns to America without all the fuss that happened last March. Before January there’s no possibility.’ "I saw him on TV playing very well. Not to repeat the same things always but I remember how he was described a year ago. Now everyone realizes that he is a great player.”

Beckham has said he wants to return to Europe, and preferably Milan, for another loan stint to make sure he has a chance of an England squad place for next year’s World Cup in South Africa if they qualify.

Credit: The Associated Press.