David Beckham ripped Los Angeles Galaxy team-mate Landon Donovan as unprofessional yesterday ahead of his return to the Major League Soccer squad today.

US star Donovan criticized Beckham as stingy, selfish and a poor captain in book excerpts published last week in Sports Illustrated, with Beckham answering last weekend that Donovan should have come to him with the complaints first.

"It's unprofessional in my eyes," Beckham said.

"In every 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.

"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 criticized for my professionalism."

Beckham rejoins the Galaxy for practice today ahead of his return match on Thursday at New York and a home exhibition on July 19 against 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 last week that he wished he had spoken to Beckham rather than reveal his feelings to a reporter.

"I'm not going to apologize 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."

Beckham said he does not see any problem in working with Donovan, whose finishes would be vital to Beckham's precision centering kicks.

"I'm personally very professional when I am on the field," Beckham said.

"Once I'm on the field I'm professional and if there is a chance for him to score, I'll be giving him the ball... no problem about that."

The book, "The Beckham Experiment", hits shelves tomorrow. Beckham said that he will not be among those reading it.

"This is an unofficial book that I have not participated in," Beckham said.

"I haven't sat down one to one or spoken about the book. There are many unofficial books that have been published about me, so this is just another one on the shelf."

Beckham could buy his way out of his US contract after the MLS season but said he would seek a loan to Milan again if need be so he could be fully prepared to play his best for England in next year's World Cup in South Africa.

World Cup hopes

"To be involved in the World Cup and to be involved with this England squad, I have to give myself the chance to be at that top level," Beckham said.

Beckham hopes to help the Galaxy improve from their fifth-place standing in the Western Conference and reach the play-offs after missing them for the past three seasons.

"That's the important part. Now we want to move forward," said Beckham, who expects little trouble adjusting to his MLS return.

"It isn't going to be difficult because we've got talent on our team," he said.

"It's just about confidence. It will be different coming back, but I don't see any problems."

Beckham arrived in Los Angeles late Friday.

On Saturday, Beckham and French legend Zinedane Zidane played with youth in a ceremony to launch a programme to create youth football fields.