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.

David Beckham has come under attack from L.A. Galaxy team-mate Landon Donovan just as he prepares to return for action with the MLS team.

Donovan turned down his own chance to stay in Europe. Donovan, who is the United States captain and wears the Galaxy armband in Beckham’s absence, also questioned the former England skipper’s leadership abilities, claiming he is too often silent in team meetings. “Maybe he’s not a leader, maybe he’s not a captain,” he said. “Fair enough. But at a minimum, you should bust your ass every day. That hasn’t happened. And I don’t think that’s too much for us to expect. Especially when he’s brought all this on us.”

Can Landon Donovan look at David Beckham and be thinking anything good about his teammate? According to the AP, Landon Donovan believes that Beckham has become a bad teammate. “I can’t think of another guy where I’d say he wasn’t a good teammate, he didn’t give everything through all this, he didn’t still care,” Donovan said. “But with (Beckham) I’d say no, he wasn’t committed.” Click here for all the quotes and details from the original AP article.

Beckham’s first two seasons in MLS were largely a miserable experience. An unbalanced Galaxy team struggled all year and missed out on the play-offs, with Gullit quitting before the end of the campaign. Gullit’s departure, is the moment Donovan believes the light went out for the club’s marquee player. “When David first came, I believed he was committed to what he was doing,” Donovan said. “He cared. He wanted to do well. He wanted the team and the league to do well. “Somewhere along the way – and in my mind it coincides with Ruud being let go – he just flipped a switch and said, ‘Uh-huh, I’m not doing it anymore’.” Beckham pushed for a loan move to AC Milan in January, and then extended it to the point that he missed half of the 2009 MLS season. That served as evidence that he does not care for the league, according to Donovan, who gave up his chance to play in Europe early in his career in order to stay at home. “My sense is that David’s clearly frustrated, that he’s unhappy and, honestly, that he thinks it’s a joke,” he said. “I also kind of feel (he has taken the team) for granted. I don’t see dedication or commitment to this team, and that’s troubling.”

Beckham is due to make his return for the Galaxy against the New York Red Bulls on July 16.

He will line up alongside Donovan in that game, but the striker does not want that to be the case for much longer. “Let’s say he does stay here for three more years,” Donovan said. “I’m not going to spend the next three years of my life doing it this way. This is f****** miserable. I don’t want to have soccer be this way.”

Has the Beckham experiment officially failed? With even the players now coming out and saying so, how can Beckham’s return have any chance of success? Does this make the MLS look bad even after the great showing of the National team in Africa? I know I am personally looking forward to booing Beckham (although we will not even see him in Dallas this year). I totally understand the desire to play for God and Country, but to trash the league that gave him a life line after all others didn’t offer a contract!! Tell me what do you think?

 

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