LONDON: Everton has offered former England captain David Beckham a chance to return to the Premier League on a short-term loan from the Los Angeles Galaxy during Major League Soccer's close season. Everton manager David Moyes told reporters ahead of Saturday's match at home to West Bromwich Albion that the 35-year-old, who is a close friend of captain Phil Neville, would be a welcome addition in the January window. “I would hope that if David wanted to come he would pick up the phone and call me,” said Moyes, who is still hoping to re-sign Beckham's Galaxy teammate Landon Donovan on a second three month loan deal. “I know him and if David Beckham wanted to come back to the Premier League, he would only need to call me or Phil. We would be here for him at Everton.” Moyes, whose side is 14th in the league after a slow start to the season, played with Beckham when the future Manchester United player was on loan at Preston North End in 1995. Beckham has spent his last two winter breaks on loan to AC Milan in Italy. The Londoner, who has 115 England caps, was ruled out of his country's World Cup campaign in South Africa this year by an Achilles tendon injury and returned to action for the Galaxy in September. After playing a full 90 minutes in the Galaxy's 2-1 loss to Australian A-League club Newcastle Jets in a friendly Saturday, Beckham played down the prospect of moving back to English football. “I think it's always nice to be wanted and it's always nice to have options out there and I've always respected David Moyes from the time I've played with him at Preston North End ... plus I respect him as a manager,” Beckham said. “It's always nice to be wanted, but I'm a Man United fan and it's a pretty close rivalry so, I don't know.” Having recently come back from injury, Beckham said he is concentrating on his recovery. “Right now, I'm just getting my body back into shape because I was out of the game for six months with a pretty serious injury and I came back pretty quickly,” Beckham said. “I think I'm feeling the effects of the month and a half I've played since I got injured.” Galaxy loses in Australia David Beckham, hampered by a back problem, played a full match as his LA Galaxy lineup lost 2-1 to the Australian A-League's Newcastle Jets Saturday. Goals to Newcastle strikers Sasho Petrovski and Labinot Haliti in front of 23,317 fans came after US international Landon Donovan put Galaxy ahead in the eighth minute. Beckham, who in 2007 thrilled a sold-out former Olympic Stadium with a trademark free kick in a 5-3 loss to Sydney FC in his last trip Down Under, almost repeated the effort with a powerful shot on the stroke of halftime against Newcastle that sailed just across the face of goal. The former Manchester United and Real Madrid star shrugged off the miss: “Some go in, some don't. Maybe in another game.”
