I have no doubt that more than a few new spectators will show up around the league to watch the quarter-of-a-billion-dollar-man play soccer for the Los Angeles Galaxy. They will have a natural and understandable curiosity to see what all the fuss is about, and if they keep their minds open, they may learn something about this game of ours. So what is David Beckham going to show them? And why did Anschutz and others pour millions upon millions of dollars into a 32-year-old player’s pockets?

They will see a very fine player, even if he is no longer in his prime, and they will see him play an unspectacular but effective style. The way he plays may not excite spectators who want to see flashy one-on-one stuff, or dribbling the way that Pele and Maradona and George Best did it. But they will see the following:

• He is a fine passer of the ball, able to knock a pass forty yards to the foot of a teammate;

• He sends crosses into the center and flanks of the opponents’ defense with an accuracy and timing that are sometimes beyond belief, curling away from defenders into the path of his own forwards;

• Beckham can be lethal at set-pieces, from the corner arc or from free-kicks. His curving and dipping shots on goal force the defenders into a state of anxiety every time he approaches the ball;

• As a midfielder, he is in constant motion; in the parlance of coaches, he has a high work-rate. Yallop, his coach in L.A. has hinted that he may play the multi-million-dollar-man in the center of midfield, to allow him more opportunities to be on the ball and distribute it;

• Beckham is an exemplary professional, shown never more clearly than during this last month, when the Real Madrid coach publicly declared he would not play Beckham again. The player did not protest, did not sulk, but worked as hard in training as he always did. He’s back in the team. You won’t see the player hiding a lack of conditioning by ‘resting’ during play, the way that some of the ageing stars of the NASL did years ago.

The fans of Major League Soccer will see a tactical player, not a spectacular one. He will win matches with the work he does, the opportunities he creates for teammates, and every now and then, with a shot struck so skillfully that he can bend it . . . well, like Beckham.