Beckham hints he may stay at Milan beyond loan spell

DAVID BECKHAM has hinted he could stay at AC Milan beyond the end of his loan spell. The England midfielder is due to return to the Los Angeles Galaxy in March and all parties have always insisted he will be back in America for the new Major League Soccer season.

However, shortly after scoring his first goal for the Rossoneri, Beckham admitted anything could happen. “I can’t say what will happen,” he said. “Even if my contract says that I’ll be here until March. We’ll have to see.

“At the moment I’m enjoying this experience. I’m at one of the biggest clubs in the world. And having won gives us confidence to continue.”

Beckham enjoyed arguably his best performance in a Milan shirt yesterday and scored his first goal for the club on the hour mark as he helped them to a 4-1 victory at Bologna. The former Manchester United player was delighted to get off the mark at his new club.

“It’s great to score my first goal – I will keep this jersey,” he said. “But it’s more important the team won and we played well. It’s special to play for Milan and also to score, but what’s most important is that we won.”

Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti was delighted with Beckham’s performance, but insists the club can do nothing to keep him at the San Siro. However, he claims the 33-year-old holds his future in his own hands.

“If he said ‘we’ll see’ it means he’s thinking about staying,” Ancelotti told Sky Italia.

“However, our hands are tied as he has a clear contract. We can’t do anything to change things, he can surely do so. He has to resolve his contract with the American team.

“I am realistic, we are capitalising on his presence at the moment and so, while we have him at our disposal, we will try to do things the best way possible.”

Adriano turned in Maicon’s clever cross on half-time to beat Sampdoria 1-0 and see Inter Milan regain their three-point lead at the top fo Serie A. Inter coach Jose Mourinho was sent off minutes before the goal for dissent.

Juventus had moved level with Inter thanks to a narrow 1-0 win over Fiorentina on Saturday night.

A 21st-minute goal from Claudio Marchisio decided the game in the home side’s favour, but Fiorentina will have felt hard done by for the second week running after having a seemingly-valid goal from Alberto Gilardino disallowed in the first half.

Cesare Prandelli’s side created enough chances to equalise, but found Gianluigi Buffon in fine form to deny them.