Beckam fires back at Donovan

LOS ANGELES – England star midfielder David Beckham ripped Los Angeles Galaxy teammate Landon Donovan as unprofessional on Saturday ahead of his return to the Major League Soccer squad on Monday.

US star Donovan criticised Beckham as stingy, selfish and a poor captain in book excerpts published last week in Sports Illustrated, with Beckham answering Saturday that Donovan should have come to him with the complaints first.’It’s unprofessional in my eyes,’ Beckham said. ‘In every soccer player’s eyes throughout the world it would be unprofessional to speak out about a teammate, especially in the press, and not to your face.’But I’m going to turn it on a positive spin because that’s what this needs. In 17 years, I have played with the biggest teams in the world and the biggest players and not once have I been criticised for my professionalism.’Beckham rejoins the Galaxy for practice today ahead of his return match Thursday at New York and a home exhibition July 19 against AC Milan, the team for which Beckham was loaned for five months during the Italian season.’It’s important to get this cleared up and I will be speaking to Landon… over the next couple of days,’ Beckham said. ‘Me and Landon will talk, but that will be a private conversation.’Donovan told the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday that he wished he had spoken to Beckham rather than reveal his feelings to a reporter.’I’m not going to apologise for the way I felt,’ Donovan said. ‘What I feel badly about is that I should have been a man and told David how I felt as opposed to telling a reporter.- Nampa-AFP