Vieri joins Milan from city rivals Inter

Italy striker Christian Vieri has joined Milan from city rivals Inter, the Champions League finalists said yesterday.

The 31-year-old, released by Inter last week, signed a contract until June 2007, the club said on its website.

At Inter, Vieri was one of the best-paid players in Italy, earning a reported 12 million euros a year including sponsorship and marketing deals.

Milan's statement did not reveal how much he would earn at his new club.

Milan is Vieri's 10th club in a much-travelled career which began with Torino.

His latest move came as a surprise in Italy, where Milan had been considered among his less likely destinations. The 2004 Italian champions appeared to be looking elsewhere.

They have repeatedly expressed an interest in 22-year-old Parma striker Alberto Gilardino, the man who has assumed Vieri's mantle as Italy's best centre forward.

Italian press reports had linked Vieri with a move to Italian champions Juventus or abroad to either Spain or England.

Lying behind Vieri's decision to stay in Italy could be his determination to revive his flagging international career.

He has scored 22 goals in 45 games for the Azzurri and was their first choice striker at both the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea and the 2004 European Championship in Portugal, but has lost his automatic place since Marcello Lippi took over as national team coach in July 2004.

He reportedly left Inter because he was unhappy at his increasingly marginal position in the team under coach Roberto Mancini.

At Milan he will form a strike partnership with European Footballer of the Year Andriy Shev-chenko, though the possible arrival of Gilardino could see him relegated to the bench again.