£3m deal for Terry in Russia
Veteran ‘still hungry to play’ as he agrees Spartak offer
JOHN TERRY is in talks to join Spartak Moscow on a year-long contract with the option of another year.
The former England and Chelsea captain travelled to Rome by private jet on Friday night for a medical ahead of finalising personal terms on a tax-free deal, estimated to be worth about £3million a year.
Terry is being brought in to replace French defender Samuel Gigot, who sustained an anterior cruciate ligament injury last week and is out for the remainder of the season.
Spartak are due to face Steven Gerrard’s Glasgow Rangers in the Europa League and are chasing the domestic crown, just two points off leaders Zenit St Petersburg, who are led by Terry’s former Chelsea team-mate, Branislav Ivanovic.
Terry, a free agent after leaving Aston Villa at the end of last season, has had a number of offers.
But Spartak want a deal concluded quickly and have made the 37-year-old a lucrative offer with easy-achievable bonuses to persuade him to move to Moscow.
They convened to hold a medical at Rome’s Villa Stuart clinic yesterday lunchtime to speed up the move, with Spartak sending agent Marco Trabucchi to oversee negotiations.
Terry was due to take part in a charity football match at Celtic yesterday but posted an apology as his transfer took shape, saying: ‘I’m sorry I can’t be there today to support James Milner and Stiliyan Petrov at Celtic Park.’ If all goes as planned, Terry could be in new coach Massimo Carrera’s squad for next Sunday’s Russia Premier League encounter against Terek Grozny. The centre-back has kept himself fit by training throughout the summer and admitted to Sportsmail this weekend that he was ‘still hungry to play if everything around it is right’.
‘I’m in the best condition I have been in for the last eight to 10 years of my career,’ said Terry.
‘I’ve had a brilliant summer, the first time in 20 years I have been able to get away like that with my family during the school holidays.
‘I was away so much last year because I was fully committed to giving everything to Aston Villa but now I am fully recharged.’