England midfielder Owen Hargreaves will join Manchester United from Bayern Munich on July 1, the English Premiership champions said on Thursday.
The Old Trafford club confirmed a deal has been reached with the German giants for the 25-year-old, who United have been chasing since last year’s World Cup in Germany.
”Manchester United is delighted to announce that it has agreed terms with Bayern Munich for the transfer of Owen Hargreaves,” said a club statement. ”The player has also agreed terms with the club and passed his medical.”
Hargreaves will sign a five-year contract when he returns from a family holiday in his native Canada at the end of next month, with the move formally taking effect on July 1.
The announcement ends a year-long pursuit of the Calgary-born star by Sir Alex Ferguson and comes less than 24 hours after United revealed they had agreed transfers in principle for Porto’s Brazilian attacking midfielder Anderson and Sporting Lisbon’s flying winger Nani.
Ferguson made a concerted effort to bring Hargreaves to Old Trafford after the World Cup, in which the midfielder turned out to be one of England’s few success stories.
Hargreaves left no one in any doubt he wanted to make the move, only for Bayern to block the deal fearing supporter unrest after losing Michael Ballack to Chelsea.
Ferguson was hopeful of resurrecting the deal in January but those plans were scuppered when Hargreaves — who has family that hails from Bolton — broke his leg on club duty against Arminia Bielefeld in September.
However, there was little doubt the United boss was determined to push the transfer through once the season was over and Bayern’s failure to qualify for next year’s Champions League only made it more certain Hargreaves would end up at Old Trafford. — AFP