England midfielder Owen Hargreaves has finally sealed his move to Manchester United from Bayern Munich and will join the Premiership champions at the start of July.
The Old Trafford club have confirmed a deal has been completed with Bayern and with personal terms agreed and a medical passed, all that is required now is for the 25-year-old to officially sign what is expected to be a five-year contract.
Hargreaves will do that 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 1st.
United manager Alex Ferguson has been busy in the transfer market over the last 48-hours following yesterday's major move for highly-rated Portugal-based duo Anderson and Nani.
Most of the best clubs in Europe, including Chelsea and Real Madrid, have been linked with one of the pair at some stage over the past few months. But a flying visit to Portugal by United's chief executive David Gill and Alex Ferguson's assistant Carlos Queiroz has proved exceptionally fruitful.
Fees have been agreed with the players' respective clubs - FC Porto and Sporting Lisbon - and personal terms have also been sorted out. All that remains are the medicals and, in Anderson's case, a work permit, before the formal conclusion of the transfers are announced.
"Manchester United is delighted to announce that it has agreed terms with Bayern Munich for the transfer of Owen Hargreaves," said a statement in relation to Hargreaves. "The player has also agreed terms with the club and passed his medical."
The announcement ends a year-long pursuit of the Calgary-born
star by Ferguson who 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 which 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.
Although no fee has been mentioned, it is thought to be around the £17million mark.
With the sums initially paid out for Anderson and Nani taken into account, Ferguson has already spent £40million, with more to come as he continues the search for a central striker.
