Yorke gets TT$5m ‘golden handshake’

EX-NATIONAL striker Dwight Yorke has severed ties with English Premiership club Blackburn Rovers. And according to a source very close to the club yesterday, the Tobago-born  Yorke was given a TT $5 million (?500,000) “golden handshake” by the English  team who signed him from Manchester United on a two-year contract just over one year ago. Yorke fell out of favour with manager Graeme Souness late last season, and the pair had a “dust up” during a training session. As a result, Yorke, who was snapped up by then Aston Villa manager Graham Taylor as an 18-year-old prodigy, was relegated to second team status for the remainder of the season. And with one year left on his contract, Blackburn Rovers decided to release him.

Yorke left Aston Villa for Manchester United for a ?12.6 million fee and he helped the Red Devils to three championship titles, the FA Cup and the UEFA Champions Cup. The ever-smiling footballer who rose from a boyhood crab catcher to make it big on the English and European football stage, announced his retirement from the Trinidad and Tobago team in 2001 following a dispute with then national coach Brazilian Rene Simoes. Only on Sunday last, Yorke played 45 minutes with the Trinidad and Tobago team in an international friendly against Northern Ireland at the Dwight Yorke Stadium, Bacolet, Tobago, named in his honour. But the 32-year-old insisted he was not returning to international  football. According to the source, Yorke is now being sought to play for a team in the Far East.