We decided, at The National, to do a story on the history of aging players who have signed, near the end of their careers, with Major League Soccer. The focus being on guys who were at least 30 when they got to MLS … 30 being the point when attacking players, in particular, tend to lose their skills.

The peg, as we say in print, was Thierry Henry of France signing with the New York Red Bulls. One of our overseas columnists did a Q&A with Monsieur Henry … and someone had the idea of “how about a piece on other players who have gone to America at the end of their career?” … and I was volunteered … and pleased to do it.

Luis Bueno, a friend and former colleague, and MLS expert, was a great help in this. I e-mailed him  a request to give me a batch of names in three groups — good, awful, in-between. He responded within a few hours, and a bit after that he sent more names …

And we were off and running on this story I put together that appears in the Tuesday editions of The National.

The short assessment?

Bringing in big names from overseas has been a very mixed bag, for the MLS.

Of the guys who were truly well-known, globally, and accomplished, really only one did well in MLS, and that was Hristo Stoichkov of Bulgaria. This was a guy who twice finished second in the FIFA balloting for player of the year, while at Barcelona, but came over and played hard for Chicago in MLS, and led them to an MLS Cup final and to a US Open Cup championship.

The other three biggest names in MLS history … not so successful.

The first would be Lothar Matthaus, whose brief spell with New York/New Jersey in 2000 was a disaster. He played in 16 matches, criticized teammates and management, missed a chunk of the season to play for Germany in Euro 2000, came back … and well, he stunk. And when he got hurt he went to St. Tropez to rehab … and that was the end of his playing career. A fairly spectacular crash and burn.

The second would be David Beckham, who may have sold a lot of merchandise and quite a few tickets, but has been far less than impressive with the Galaxy. Seven goals in 41 appearances … and it’s not so much the low rate of scoring for a wide midfielder … it’s the lack of getting on the field now that we are three-plus seasons into his, ahem, Galaxy career.

He did 25 matches in the 2008 season, which is something approaching a full season. But he played in only five in 2007 and 11 in 2009 (in part because he has taken to spending half the year with AC Milan) and, of course, none so far this season as he rehabs from a ruptured Achilles. Doesn’t seem like much value for $6.5 million the Galaxy gives Becks every year.

The other big-name bust was Denilson, who played for Brazil in the 1998 and 2002 World Cups. He showed up out of shape and disinterested, walked through 11 games and scored two goals for Dallas in 2007 … but was paid $870,000 for it — and that is Real Money, in MLS.

Among the successes … Peter Nowak, who led Chicago to the 1998 MLS Cup title; Luciano Emilio, who was MVP and led MLS in scoring in 2007 with 20 goals; Carlos Valderrama, the big-haired Colombian who ran the offenses for a couple of Florida teams …

The most prominent 10 are in this break-out box list …

And, again, thanks much to Luis for identifying a batch of these guys right off the bat. I follow MLS fairly well, but when we’re talking about 15 seasons and hundreds of foreigners and a lot of turnover … well, I forgot completely that Stoichkov, for one, played in the league.