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The Hollywood paparazzi are going to have a little less fodder on the sidelines at Los Angeles Lakers games come January. Italian giants AC Milan have officially confirmed the long-rumored second loan of English midfielder David Beckham from the Los Angeles Galaxy. While the official details of the loan haven't been released, this much seems to be known. Beckham will join Milan in January and finish out the 2009-10 Serie A season, before he hopes to join England's team at next June's World Cup. This means, as he did this season, Beckham would parachute back to the Galaxy in either late June, or more likely, early July.
Unlike last winter's Beckham loan, there is considerably less acrimony on both sides, which is somewhat of a surprise. When he returned from Italy during the current MLS season, he was booed, jeered and even had a confrontation with a venom-spewing fan during his first game at the Home Depot Center in a friendly, ironically, against AC Milan.
The ensuing release of "The Beckham Experiment" probably didn't help matters since it made even the most ardent Beckham fans call into question his level of commitment to the Galaxy, MLS and soccer in America.
However, instead of being rained down upon with garbage like a 1980s wrestling villain whenever he lined up for a corner kick, Beckham once again bounced back when his back was against the proverbial wall.
Though it's not on par with his freekick against Greece that punched England's ticket to the 2002 World Cup, three years after his bitter ejection after a red card against Argentina at the 1998 quarterfinals in France, Beckham once again proved -- at least some -- of the doubters wrong.
When he could have mailed it in and cruised through the MLS season before going back to Milan -- and potentially buying out the remaining years of his much ballyhooed five-year contract -- a strange thing happened on the way back to the San Siro: the Galaxy got good. Or, at least under coach Bruce Arena they got competitive, compared to the nine-car pile-up they resembled in his first two seasons, by winning the Western Conference, albeit with just a 12-6-12 record. (In another irony, Milan is nine points adrift of rival Inter in the Serie A table.)
As of this posting, the Galaxy are locked up 2-2 with city rival Chivas USA in the first round of the MLS playoffs. It probably helped, too, that after all the anti-Beckham fervor calmed down the media spotlight decreased significantly and he was just able to go about business as a soccer player and not worry about being soccer's savior in America. More importantly, he quietly put to bed any possible discord between he and Galaxy captain Landon Donovan, whose quotes in "The Beckham Experiment" painted the Englishman as a terrible, aloof and (gasp) cheap teammate.
Wouldn't it be typical Beckham fashion for him to ride off into the sunset as a conquering hero as the Galaxy capture their third MLS Cup? (Then again, considering MLS' snakebitten luck, Chivas will find a way to win this weekend's second-leg, thereby killing any potential media buzz the league might have attracted had Beckham & Co. found a way to advance.)
