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You are in: Football: Teams: Leeds United |
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Wednesday, 22 May, 2002, 15:37 GMT 16:37 UK
Bowyer transfer-listed
Bowyer was transfer-listed earlier last season
Leeds United are ready to sell Lee Bowyer after the midfielder turned down a new five-year deal. The club have put Bowyer on the transfer list after he told them he had made a "career decision" to leave Elland Road. The 25-year-old had been in contract talks since December but has rejected the final offer from the club, believed to be worth in the region of £2m a year. And with Bowyer having just one year remaining on his contract, Leeds chairman Peter Ridsdale announced the club had placed him on the transfer list with "great reluctance."
"Leeds United announce that Lee Bowyer has made the decision to turn down a new five-year contract," Ridsdale said in a statement. "Lee's accountant David Geiss has informed us that the terms of the contract are not the issue but that Lee has made the career decision to move on. "With Lee having one year remaining on his current agreement, the club has no alternative but to place him on the transfer list with immediate effect. "This initiative has been taken with great reluctance. "Given the contract offered by the club, which would have elevated Lee to the elite of the highest paid players at Leeds United, and given the support the club has shown Lee during the past turbulent 30 months, we are disappointed to have this reached this juncture. "We are surprised that this is the outcome after months of what appeared to be positive talks." Controversy Earlier this year Bowyer was found not guilty of affray and grievous bodily harm with intent in relation to an assault on Asian student Sarfraz Najeib. He was also then put up for sale after refusing to accept a fine - thought to be around £90,000 - imposed by the club for breaking a code of conduct on the night of the attack.
Bowyer joined Leeds from Charlton in July 1996 for £2.7m - a British record fee for a teenager at the time. Just months after his big-money move was fined £4,500 after admitting affray following an incident at a McDonald's restaurant in London. In February 2002, he was banned for six matches and fined £10,000 by the Football Association after being found guilty of elbowing Liverpool midfielder Gary McAllister and also swearing at referee Jeff Winter in a match against Arsenal. The Najeib court case prevented Bowyer from fulfilling his World Cup ambitions. But England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson has intimated the midfielder will be part of his plans for the Euro 2004 qualifiers. Robbie Keane, Olivier Dacourt, Harry Kewell and even England defender Rio Ferdinand have also been the subject of transfer rumours since Ridsdale warned the club would have to off-load some of their players.
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