David Beckham is planning showdown talks with L.A. Galaxy team-mate Landon Donovan, who questioned the English football star’s commitment to the MLS team earlier this month.
Beckham said the U.S. national captain was “unprofessional” for publicly voicing his opinions, which were reported worldwide from the soon-to-be-published book “The Beckham Experiment” by Sports Illustrated writer Grant Wahl. “In every football player’s eyes throughout the world, it would be unprofessional to speak out about a team-mate, especially in the press and not to your face,” Beckham said before watching the Galaxy’s 1-0 win over Chivas USA on Saturday night. What do you think Was Donovan right “In 17 years, I have played with the biggest teams in the world and the biggest players, and not once have I been criticized for my professionalism. “It’s important to get this cleared up, and I will be speaking to Landon either this evening or over the next couple of days. Me and Landon will talk, but that will be a private conversation.” Donovan, who led the United States to the Confederations Cup final last month, said in the book that Beckham had been a negative influence since his high-profile move to the Major League Soccer outfit two years ago.
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He said Beckham, who brokered a loan move to AC Milan last season, had shown little interest in the Galaxy since coach Ruud Gullit resigned in August last year. Donovan, who leads the Galaxy in Beckham’s absence, also cast doubt on the 34-year-old midfielder’s leadership abilities. But last week he admitted that he should have brought up his grievances with Beckham earlier. “I don’t apologize for what I said,” Donovan told MLSnet.com on Thursday. “I just apologize for the way I did. I should have told him to his face. I’ve long told David since he’s been gone and I’ve been gone that I want to sit down and talk with him about everything. “It’s fresh in everyone’s minds now, and it appears like everything has gone on in a short period of time, but this has been a long time coming. The timing of it makes it a little awkward and seemingly uncomfortable, but we’ll be fine. We’ll get through it. “I like David as a person and I think he’s a very good player. The frustrating part was at some point something happened and he seemingly turned off at the end of the year. “Nobody knows what it was, and my fault is I should have asked him and approached him and I didn’t. Instead I vented to a reporter, and I regret it.”
