RIO FERDINAND HAS agreed to join newly-promoted Premier League side Queens Park Rangers in a move that will see him reconnect with Harry Redknapp – the man who handed him a professional debut eighteen years ago.
The deal is expected to be confirmed shortly.
The 35 year-old defender was a free agent after Manchester United released him last month and has been spending the post-season working as a BBC pundit at the World Cup in Brazil.
Despite injuries increasingly causing him problems over the last number of seasons, Ferdinand was intent on continuing his playing career, writing in his Daily Mail column at the start of June that he had received offers from “several clubs in England and overseas”.
According to reports, Ferdinand will take a substantial pay-cut to sign with the London club and joins an already ‘experienced’ defensive group.
The club already boasts 35 year-old Clint Hill and 34 year-old Richard Dunne while goalkeeper Robert Green is also in his early-thirties. Elsewhere in the squad, Andrew Johnson, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Bobby Zamora, Aaron Hughes, Jermaine Jenas and Joey Barton are all on the wrong side of thirty.
QPR’s first league game of the new season is against Hull at Loftus Road on 16th August.