David Beckham has a friend in AC Milan icon Paolo Maldini

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For more than two decades, Paolo Maldini has been the face of AC Milan and, to a large extent, of Italian soccer.

The 40-year-old defender is now in his final season, hoping to win one last trophy before hanging up his boots for good.

He believes his chance of doing so would be helped if David Beckham remains with the Serie A team, and said so in a somewhat unusual manner on Friday in Milan, at a news conference about Sunday’s Inter Milan-AC Milan clash that will have huge bearing on the title race.

‘David has expressed his desire to stay and that is what the club wants, too,’ Maldini said.

‘I don’t know how his contractual problems will be resolved, but if they are resolved we’ll be very happy to have him until the end of the season and next year, too, being as that is what he wants.

‘When two people meet and they are happy, I think there should be a marriage.’

Trying to avoid a messy divorce, the Galaxy on Friday said it would not listen to any more offers from Milan for Beckham, and that he would return to Los Angeles as scheduled on March 9.

For more details and some lively quotes, see the story at latimes.com/sports/soccer.

-- Grahame L. Jones