Joey Barton will join Rangers on a two-year contract when his Burnley deal expires this summer. Barton, 33, joined Burnley on a one-year deal last summer and helped the club to return to the Premier League after winning the Championship, but he has opted to move on to Rangers after they secured promotion to the Scottish Premiership. The midfielder, who has previously played for Manchester City, Newcastle, Queens Park Rangers and Marseille, was named in the Championship Team of the Year this season and had been offered a new 12-month deal but has opted to move on. He told Rangers TV: "When I first found out there was potentially the opportunity to come up here, from that moment on your blood got pumping while you thought about what this could be, what it already is." Rangers were liquidated and reformed in 2012, and the new club will finally play in the top tier after winning the Scottish Championship this season. "I'm fully aware of the situation the club's been in in the last few years but to be part of a group that is going to put this football club back where it belongs was just an opportunity that, if I didn't take it, I would have regretted it probably for the rest of my life," Barton said. "Things in life just happen at the right time and you're in the right place sometimes, and I feel this was a real case of that. "Once I'd walked into the building and seen what this club was about, I knew it would fit perfectly with what I want to do." He wrote on Twitter: "Thanks to all the Burnley fans and everyone connected to the club. Amazing support this year that will live with me for a lifetime. "Toughest decision of my professional life to leave an amazing set of people and a phenomenal culture behind. "I was presented with an opportunity and challenge the competitive animal in me just could not turn down. Onwards and upwards now x"
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