England star mid-fielder David Beckham ripped Los Angeles Galaxy teammate Landon Donovan as ‘unprofessional to speak out about a team mate especially in the press and not to your face’, ahead of his return to the Major League Soccer squad on Monday, saying Donovan should have spoken only after confronting him first.
 
Making his first public appearance in Southern California after his return from his five-month loan to Italian club AC Milan, Beckham says he has not spoken to Donovan, who in his upcoming book ‘The Beckham Experiment’, written by Grant Wahl, in book excerpts published last week in Sports Illustrated, calls Beckham stingy, selfish and a poor captain.
 
On his part, Donovan told the Los Angeles Times Wednesday, he wished he had spoken to Beckham rather than revealing his feelings to a reporter.
 
Hoping to turn it on a positive spin, Beckham says in 17-years of playing with the biggest world teams, including the biggest players, he has not once been criticized for his professionalism, and will be speaking to Landon soon to clear the air.
 
Beckham returns to his first practice with the team on Monday, as The Galaxy plays Chivas USA Saturday.
 
And even though the level of play in MLS isn’t as high as in Italy’s top league, being in Italy helped Beckham keep his game sharp, saying if given the opportunity, he would do it again in 2010, making one last World Cup appearance with England.
 
And, as for playing with Donovan, Beckham says he’s very professional out on the field, and if Landon has a chance to score, he will pass him the ball, but still Landon and he need to have a private conversation.
 
 
Arriving Friday night in Los Angeles, for the first time in six months he was able to visit with his family, with wife Victoria and he staying up till 5:00 a.m. to simply ‘catch up’.  While, on Saturday, Beckham and French legend Zinedane Zidane played with 13 and 14-year-olds in El Segundo, helping MLS kick-off its’ footprint fields community programme in a ceremony to launch a programme for creating youth football fields across the country.
 
Wahl's book comes out two days before the Galaxy play against the New York Red Bulls at Giants Stadium, on 14th July, but Beckham says he will not read the book as it is unofficial and he has not participated in.