Saturday 25 Jul 2020

Reggina 1914 sign striker Kyle Lafferty on two-year deal

Striker Kyle Lafferty has put pen-to-paper on a two-year deal with Italian Serie B side Reggina 1914 after being released by Sunderland. 

It will the 32-year-old’s second spell in Italian football having played for Palermo in 2013 scoring 12 goals in 36 games as he helped the club gain promotion to Serie A.

A year later though, he left to return to England to join Championship side Norwich City where, in his first season at Carrow Road, he also helped the Canaries achieve promotion to the top flight in 2015.

The Enniskillen-born forward, who has played professional football in six different countries during his career, was released by League One Sunderland on completion of the season last month having scored just twice in 11 appearances for the Wearsiders.

The Fermanagh man’s move to Italy in search of regular first-team football, will be a huge boost to new Northern Ireland boss Ian Baraclough who as well as having the crucial EURO 2020 play-off in Bosnia in October, has also six Nations League matches to contend with, in what is a busy autumn schedule. 

Lafferty, who made his international debut as an 18-year-old in a 1-0 defeat to Uruguay in 2006, won his 75^th cap in the 3-1 defeat to the Netherlands last October and is, of course, Northern Ireland’s second highest scorer of all-time with 20 goals.