American international Eddie Lewis has left Fulham for Preston North End this afternoon for a fee believed to be in the region of £500,000.
The 28 year-old helped the United States reach the quarter finals of this summer’s World Cup in South Korea and Japan and has been on North End boss Craig Brown’s radar since his previous spell as a scout at Craven Cottage.
Lewis, dubbed the American David Beckham after his £1.3m move from the San Jose Earthquakes to Fulham in February 2000, struggled for regular game time after Jean Tigana replaced Paul Bracewell in the Cottage dugout. The left winger scored just once in 22 games and Preston chairman Derek Shaw told the North End official website:
“I am very pleased about the signing, because Eddie is a player that Craig Brown recognised as someone he wanted to bring here when he first arrived at the club. It has taken quite a while to complete, which may lead to some criticism from the supporters, but we feel that we have got the deal that we wanted and obviously Eddie has got the deal he wanted, otherwise it wouldn’t have been completed successfully.
I would like to welcome Eddie to the club. He has a great pedigree and as everybody knows, he represented the USA in the summer’s World Cup and he should prove to be a great asset to the club.”
