As the Galaxy’s leading scorer for four consecutive seasons, which was topped off with a career-best 17 goals in 2010 before his departure overseas, Edson Buddle will go down as the best goal poacher to play for the club since Carlo Ruiz.

Well, now Edson Buddle is back – and he only needs 10 more goals to overhaul the Guatemalan on the all-time Galaxy scoring list.

You can read more about Buddle’s return – and learn about Coach Bruce Arena’s regrets over his exit – in today’s column here.

More from Buddle’s press conference and first practice upon his return to Home Depot Center is here:

Also, I spoke Monday to reserve striker Chad Barrett – who is a week or so from returning to full training after recovering from the broken foot that kept him out of MLS Cup – about what Buddle’s return might mean for him. The UCLA product made $225,000 in guranteed salary last year – pretty expensive for a backup, especially on a team with plenty of other big salaries that likely needs a starting center back to replace the injured Omar Gonzalez – and conventional wisdom suggests he could become trade bait.

Here’s what he said:

“Obviously it affects my playing time on this team,” he said of Buddle. “You’ve got a guy who made the national team and did very well in his last three years.

“Obviously I’m not penciled in as a starter any more,” he added. “That’s unfortunate for me, but it makes me fight that much harder to get minutes and try to get playing time.

“For the team you couldn’t have a better situation; they’ve got their top scorer back – he was easily the best forward the last two years before he left.

“It happens that way. You see a lot of people come in – I haven’t heard anything yet (about a trade), but it might happen it might not. That’s something that has to be decided by the coaches, but nobody has come up to me and said anything to me.”

Yet.