Jermain Defoe signs three-year contract with AFC Bournemouth
CHERRIES have completed the signing of Jermain Defoe on a free transfer from Sunderland.
The striker has penned a three-year contract worth £65,000 per week and will join up with Eddie Howe's squad in time for next month's nine-day training camp in Marbella.
Defoe is currently on extended leave after being part of the England squad that played matches against Scotland and France earlier this month.
The 34-year-old returns to Cherries 16 years after he spent seven months on loan at Dean Court from West Ham United.
Capped 57 times by his country, Defoe scored 15 goals for Sunderland last season but was unable to prevent the Wearsiders from tumbling out of the Premier League.
He spent two-and-half years at the Stadium of Light, where he was an unmitigated success after coming back to England following six months playing in Major League Soccer for Toronto FC.
Defoe penned a one-year extension to his original three-and-a-half year Sunderland deal last summer – but the contract included a clause enabling him to leave the club for nothing should they be relegated.
The 5ft 7in forward, who is tied to Cherries until at least summer 2020, was eager to continue playing in the Premier League in order to further his chances of featuring for England at next year's World Cup finals in Russia.
Defoe was recalled to the Three Lions squad in March after an absence of more than three years and marked his return by scoring in a World Cup qualifier against Lithuania at Wembley.
He appeared as a late substitute in England's frenetic 2-2 draw with Scotland on June 10.
Prior to that match at Hampden Park, Defoe all but confirmed his future lay with Cherries, when he told BBC Radio 5 live: "It's out there, a lot of people obviously knew. I did a medical and said, when this is finished and I've had a break, come July, everyone will know anyway."
The forward had been keen not to formally announce his new club in the immediate wake of Sunderland's relegation, given the strong emotional attachment he formed with Black Cats' supporters during his stay in the north east.
Defoe was similarly popular with fans during his first incarnation as a Cherries player. He arrived in Dorset an unknown teenager from West Ham and promptly scored in each of the first 10 Division Two matches he played for the club.
He bagged 19 goals in all – 18 of them in the league – as Cherries roared up the table before missing out on a play-off spot by two points.
Defoe, who joined West Ham from Charlton when he was 16, left the Hammers for Tottenham in 2004.
He scored 43 Premier League goals in 139 games for the London giants, before being snapped up by Portsmouth in January 2008.
Defoe's 31 top-flight outings for Pompey, under his former West Ham boss Harry Redknapp, yielded 15 goals. He returned to Spurs in January 2009, two months after Redknapp had left Fratton Park to take charge at the capital club.
Another 48 Premier League goals followed in five-and-a-half years at White Hart Lane, before Defoe left Tottenham to join Canadian team Toronto in July 2014.
The striker has penned a three-year contract worth £65,000 per week and will join up with Eddie Howe's squad in time for next month's nine-day training camp in Marbella.
Defoe is currently on extended leave after being part of the England squad that played matches against Scotland and France earlier this month.
The 34-year-old returns to Cherries 16 years after he spent seven months on loan at Dean Court from West Ham United.
Capped 57 times by his country, Defoe scored 15 goals for Sunderland last season but was unable to prevent the Wearsiders from tumbling out of the Premier League.
He spent two-and-half years at the Stadium of Light, where he was an unmitigated success after coming back to England following six months playing in Major League Soccer for Toronto FC.
Defoe penned a one-year extension to his original three-and-a-half year Sunderland deal last summer – but the contract included a clause enabling him to leave the club for nothing should they be relegated.
The 5ft 7in forward, who is tied to Cherries until at least summer 2020, was eager to continue playing in the Premier League in order to further his chances of featuring for England at next year's World Cup finals in Russia.
Defoe was recalled to the Three Lions squad in March after an absence of more than three years and marked his return by scoring in a World Cup qualifier against Lithuania at Wembley.
He appeared as a late substitute in England's frenetic 2-2 draw with Scotland on June 10.
Prior to that match at Hampden Park, Defoe all but confirmed his future lay with Cherries, when he told BBC Radio 5 live: "It's out there, a lot of people obviously knew. I did a medical and said, when this is finished and I've had a break, come July, everyone will know anyway."
The forward had been keen not to formally announce his new club in the immediate wake of Sunderland's relegation, given the strong emotional attachment he formed with Black Cats' supporters during his stay in the north east.
Defoe was similarly popular with fans during his first incarnation as a Cherries player. He arrived in Dorset an unknown teenager from West Ham and promptly scored in each of the first 10 Division Two matches he played for the club.
He bagged 19 goals in all – 18 of them in the league – as Cherries roared up the table before missing out on a play-off spot by two points.
Defoe, who joined West Ham from Charlton when he was 16, left the Hammers for Tottenham in 2004.
He scored 43 Premier League goals in 139 games for the London giants, before being snapped up by Portsmouth in January 2008.
Defoe's 31 top-flight outings for Pompey, under his former West Ham boss Harry Redknapp, yielded 15 goals. He returned to Spurs in January 2009, two months after Redknapp had left Fratton Park to take charge at the capital club.
Another 48 Premier League goals followed in five-and-a-half years at White Hart Lane, before Defoe left Tottenham to join Canadian team Toronto in July 2014.
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