Some two years had elapsed since he’d signed, and it had been a long two years. There were injuries and losses and a loan spell in Milan, and the fans who once greeted him with enthusiastic reverence had grown restless. David Beckham was no longer universally beloved. One spectator’s sign at an LA Galaxy home game in July 2009 read, “Go Home Fraud.” Another said, “Here Before, Here After, Here Despite 23.”
That same day, Beckham gestured toward fans as he walked to the locker room, and one leaped from the stands and had to be restrained by security.