Beckham's Settled Better Than Expected - Valdano

Real Madrid's director of sport Jorge Valdano has admitted to being surprised at how well David Beckham has settled to lift at the Bernabeu.

Valdano was expected Beckham to have problems adjusting after his blockbuster move from Manchester United earlier this summer.

"He is the player who we thought would have most problems adapting - that's because of the language factor and because he had spent all of his life playing in the same team and had never left Manchester," Valdano told Real's website.

"But he seems to get along with people and seems to be very happy - that's vital for playing football."

Valdano was also confident Beckham's ability was set to improve the Spanish champions and praised the England captain's fighting spirit.

"He is a player with a great ability to pick out his team-mates with 30 or 40-yard passes and he also excels with free-kicks from between 20 and 30 yards, so from that point of view he is going to improve us."

"However, more than anything, what has surprised me has been his team spirit in our first games."

"In spite of all of the speculation about him, he has not played to shine individually but to improve the team and that has given us balance."