Owen agrees to join Newcastle

England striker Michael Owen agreed a four-year contract to join Newcastle United on Tuesday, ending an unhappy year at Real Madrid.

The 25-year-old former European Footballer of the Year will undergo a medical later on Tuesday and is set to complete his move for a club record fee of more than 15 million pounds ($27.11 million).

"Bringing Michael to St James' Park will rank alongside the signing of Alan Shearer as my proudest moment at Newcastle United," Newcastle chairman Freddy Shepherd told the club's website.

"Newcastle fans love centre forwards and Michael is a fantastic goalscorer. He's someone we would love to build the team around and we hope he can help us bring success to the club."

Owen had also been linked with a return to Liverpool, the club he left last year for eight million pounds when he chose to follow in the footsteps of England captain David Beckham and sign for nine-times European champions Real.

He would have preferred to return to his former club but Liverpool coach Rafa Benitez appeared reluctant to buy him back.

Newcastle asked Real about Owen's availability three weeks ago and stepped up their bid to sign him after a poor start to the season in which they gathered only one point from four matches and failed to score a goal.

With the World Cup beckoning next year, Owen decided that only by moving away from the Bernabeu would he get the games he needed to book his place in the England side alongside Wayne Rooney.

WINNING GOALS

Owen joined Real last August after eight seasons at Liverpool in which he scored 158 goals in 297 matches, helping the Merseysiders win the FA Cup, League Cup and UEFA Cup in 2001 before being named European Footballer of the Year.

Unlike fellow Galacticos Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo and Beckham, however, the England striker did not walk straight into the first team and had to settle for a place on the bench early in the season.

Competing with Ronaldo, Raul and Fernando Morientes for a place in the front line, Owen made the most of his opportunities to convince first Jose Antonio Camacho and then his successors Mariano Garcia Remon and Vanderlei Luxemburgo.

He scored vital winning goals against Valencia in the Spanish Primera Liga, Dynamo Kiev in the Champions League and Leganes in the Spanish Cup but it was not until the latter stages of the season that he was rewarded with a regular starting place.

Owen ended the season with 16 goals in all competitions and provided further evidence of his sharpness with a hat-trick in England's 3-2 win over Colombia during their post-season tour of the United States.

He is now fourth on the all-time England scorers list with 32 goals, 17 behind Bobby Charlton who tops the table with 49 international strikes.

The arrival of Brazilian strikers Robinho and Julio Baptista at Real pushed Owen further down the pecking order.

The Spanish club gave an unequivocal message that he should look for a way out when he was left sitting in the stands while they opened their league campaign at Cadiz on Sunday.