LANDON Donovan says he “knows what he was doing,” but nevertheless regrets calling out David Beckham for his indifference to their Los Angeles Galaxy. This is a team to which Beckham insisted yesterday he remains “very dedicated,” never mind the first half of the season he just blew off.
“I have to think about the goal we want to reach, reaching the playoffs and nothing other than that,” said Beckham at a Hoboken press conference yesterday. “Then I will worry about whatever else happens.
“Is it good to come in half through a season? It happens all over the world. People want to question my professionalism and my commitment? The fact that I traveled thousands of miles to play for my country I think says it all.”
Actually, it says that until the 2010 World Cup, probably the last for the 34-year-old most famous active soccer personality in the world, Beckham is not going to quit his day job to give his missionary work here his undivided attention.
“The England master made it very clear that I need to be playing at a European level,” said Beckham, who will moonlight with the mediocre Galaxy at Giants Stadium tonight against the uncompelling Red Bulls. “I was given a chance to play with one of the biggest clubs in the world (A.C. Milan) for three months the (Galaxy) wasn’t playing, and the club asked me to stay on.
“Any player in any league in this world, given the chance to finish a season with one of the biggest clubs in the world, wouldn’t turn it down.”
Especially if their $250 million contract says they can go play some serious soccer with the team’s blessing, however begrudging.
“It was a little awkward, the whole process, but fully within the conditions of his contract and we were fully in agreement,” coach Bruce Arena said yesterday. “We knew the pros and cons.
“I think having David Beckham on our team is just a fabulous asset.”
Actually, having the name David Beckham on their team is the fabulous asset. Beckham has been talking for years about how it’s going to take years, which is fair enough. But his two seasons on these shores has yet to convince a single international household name star to join him in the wowing of us heathens.
He probably will finish out his five-year $32 million contract here. Beckham may even continue to take credit for a few soccer stadiums going up, like the one in Harrison that will get the Red Bulls out of the cavernous Meadowlands.
The man does pack them in before audiences not sophisticated enough to realize he, indeed, is packing it in.