Football: Sinclair signs for Leicester

LEICESTER CITY broke their transfer record yesterday to sign the World Cup defender Frank Sinclair for pounds 2m from Chelsea.

The fee surpassed the pounds 1.6m that Leicester's manager, Martin O'Neill, spent on bring another defender, Matt Elliott, into the club from Oxford United. While Elliott went to France as part of Scotland's World Cup squad during the summer but did not kick a ball in anger, Sinclair was an ever-present for Jamaica in the finals. The south London-born Sinclair was in the starting line-up for the defeats by the eventual semi-finalists Croatia and England's conquerors, Argentina, as well as the victory over Japan.

Sinclair faces a daunting debut when Leicester open their Premiership campaign against Manchester United at Old Trafford tomorrow.

O'Neill, who has signed Sinclair on a four-year contract, said: "He is very versatile and can play in a number of positions. He will give us a bit of an injection of pace at the back."

Sinclair became a Chelsea regular in the 1992-93 campaign, but his final year there was mixed, as he him fell out of favour with the then manager, Ruud Gullit. After Gullit's departure in February, Sinclair was a goal- scoring hero twice in the space of 10 days in the European Cup-Winners' Cup quarter-final victory over Real Betis, and then in as Chelsea defeated Middlesbrough 2-0 in the Coca-Cola Cup final. A groin injury then put him out for the rest of the season and he missed the Cup-Winners' Cup final.