England midfielder Frank Lampard has confirmed that he will join the MLS team New York City FC on a two-year contract.<\/p>\n
The 36-year-old left Chelsea at the end of last season after a hugely successful 13-season stint, during which he became the club’s all-time record goalscorer with 211.<\/p>\n
He becomes New York City FC’s fourth player and will join prolific Spanish forward David Villa at the new MLS franchise.<\/p>\n
New York City are owned by Manchester City and Major League Baseball’s New York Yankees and will play at Yankee Stadium when the 2015 MLS season starts in February.<\/p>\n
New York sporting director Claudio Reyna is thrilled to have signed Lampard, describing him as “one of the greatest players over the last 15 years”.<\/p>\n
Reyna added: “He is a professional, a leader and he ticked all the boxes in terms of the qualities to help grow our team.”<\/p>\n
Lampard said: “Why not choose New York City?<\/p>\n
“Talking about it ticking all the boxes, personally, for me, it does exactly the same.<\/p>\n
“It’s a very exciting challenge for me in life terms.<\/p>\n
“I’ve seen a real long-term plan and I wanted to be part of that. I want to\u00a0test myself, I want to carry on challenging myself.<\/p>\n
“I had a fantastic 13 years with Chelsea that I can look back with pride upon.\u00a0It was a good time for myself and Chelsea that I moved on.”<\/p>\n
David Beckham played in the MLS for LA Galaxy but Lampard says that was not a factor in his decision to move to the States.<\/p>\n
“I know David pretty well, but we’re not on every day speaking terms,” he said. “I’ve spoken to him about his experiences in the MLS but the decision was all mine.<\/p>\n
“There’s a lot of new challenges here. I’m coming to a great city and I\u00a0wanted to show people that I can play good football.”<\/p>\n
However, New York City FC will not begin playing until 2015 so there is a possibility Lampard could line up for another club in the interim on a short-term basis.<\/p>\n
“I’m going to keep fit, that’s the main thing,” he said. “How I do that is not clear yet. I’m going to sit round with people at the club and sort that out.”<\/p>\n
David Villa will play for another City-owned club, Australia’s Melbourne City FC, before teaming up with New York, but Reyna said there were a “number of options” open to Lampard.<\/p>\n
Lampard has 106 England caps and was in the squad which exited at the group stages in the recent World Cup in Brazil.<\/p>\n
Having resolved his future at club level, he says he will now decide whether he will seek to continue his international career.<\/p>\n
“In terms of England, I’ve had a bit of time after the World Cup, which was obviously a huge disappointment,” he said.<\/p>\n
“I now need to think about England and think about what I want to do next. Now I know where I’ll be playing my football next year I can make that\u00a0decision.”<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
Source: Sky Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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