England boss Fabio Capello believes David Beckham's January move to AC Milan will prove to be a great deal all round.

Beckham secured a loan move to Capello's former club on Thursday, and will move to Milan on January 7.

He should spend two months there before returning to the Los Angeles Galaxy for the start of the Major League Soccer season.

That could mean Beckham is only available for nine Serie A matches, the first of which will be away to Roma on January 11.

But he will be training at high intensity and will be determined to win a place in Carlo Ancelotti's team, with Capello certain the Milan boss will be impressed by the England midfielder's attitude.

Speaking just hours before Beckham's move was confirmed, Capello said: "If Milan sign him they will make a great acquisition. He is a very focused lad. He is a professional."

Capello saw Beckham display remarkable determination at first hand when the midfielder played under him at Real Madrid.

Beckham's motivation for moving to Italy is he is determined to extend his England career, with Capello having warned he would miss the proposed friendly against Spain in February if he was inactive.

Capello axed Beckham from his Real Madrid squad when the former Manchester United man agreed his move to the United States in 2007, but later went back on his claim the midfielder would never play for the club again.

Capello recalled: "When I left him out of the team in Madrid because he had signed the contract with the Los Angeles Galaxy, he continued to come to the pitch to train and I put him back in the team."

Beckham, 33, must return to LA Galaxy by early March, to prepare for the MLS season, which is expected to start on March 19.

And all parties concerned are content with the terms of the deal.

Milan director Umberto Gandini told Sky Sports News: "Only David knows his future, but for sure he has a commitment to go back to the MLS and I think he will fulfil that."

Beckham, who is hoping to play in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, is close to surpassing the record number of caps for an outfield England player.

He currently has 107 caps, putting him one behind the late Bobby Moore, and 18 behind goalkeeper Peter Shilton.

Writing on his blog on davidbeckham.com, Beckham this week said: "One of the reasons I want to train and play in Milan for a few months is the fact that the MLS season doesn't run as long as the European season and having played most of my career in Europe, my body has been trained and geared not to have that amount of time off."

Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena insisted it was vital Beckham gave the Rossoneri his maximum effort.

Arena said: "I think when players don't go 100% they get hurt, so I'm not going to give him any advice about pulling out of tackles.

"David's a very experienced player and he understands when to go into challenges and when not to.

"Once in a while it doesn't always work out that way but if he goes and can play and train in that environment against players of that quality, it can't be at 50%.

"He needs to play at 100% and he needs to position himself to get on the field for first-team minutes."

Arena added Beckham was no more susceptible to injury playing at Milan than he was training with the Galaxy.

"Players can get injured whether they are in training camp or playing games and there's no method you can create that can prevent injury," he said. "If they happen, they happen for a variety of reasons.

"In the case of David, being active during this period of time definitely benefits him.

"He's not going to fall off a whole lot physically and it excites him because he believes it gives him the opportunity to position himself to have a very good year in MLS."

Arena believed Beckham's reasons for wanting the loan move to Milan were all about fitness matters rather than commercial motives.

He said: "His reasons are to stay fit and to make himself available for England, and the only way he can do that is to be training and playing in a good environment. That's his number one reason, I believe, for seeking this loan.

"This, on the part of David, was a purely technical rationale. He wants to continue to play for England and this is one of the ways to do that.

"Those marketing opportunities, he can't avoid that. Wherever he goes there are marketing opportunities and I'm certain that will occur in Italy as well. However, I strongly believe he's doing this for technical reasons.

"He wants to be in a good environment during his down time in MLS and what better environment can you have than AC Milan?"