Soccer-Damien Duff joins Villa at Melbourne City
(clarifies duration of Villa's contract in 2nd para) June 10 (Reuters) - Former Chelsea and Newcastle United winger Damien Duff has signed a one-year deal with Australia's Melbourne City, the A-League club said on Tuesday after securing their second major international signing in a week. The Manchester City-owned club last week announced the recruitment of Spain's all-time leading goalscorer David Villa for a three-month stint between October-December. Duff, who has 100 international caps for Ireland, left relegated Fulham last month and had also played for Blackburn Rovers in the English Premier League. "We're excited to have a player of Damien's quality and experience for this season," Melbourne coach John van't Schip said in a statement. "We believe he can offer international standard quality on the pitch and will also be a great professional example for our younger players. "His career speaks for itself. He has achieved almost everything at club level and has been a great player at an international level too. "He comes to us straight from the English Premier League with Fulham, so he has been playing at the highest level against top teams and top players." Playing under the name Melbourne Heart, the club finished bottom of the 10-team A-League last season. (Writing by Sudipto Ganguly; editing by Amlan Chakraborty)
