Former Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard is moving to Premier League champion Manchester City on a six-month loan deal, manager Manuel Pellegrini said on Saturday.

The England international left Chelsea when his contract ran out at the end of last season and in July joined new Major League Soccer club New York City on a two-year deal.

New York City is owned by Manchester City and Major League Baseball's New York Yankees and will play at Yankee Stadium when the 2015 MLS season gets underway in February.

"As you know, Frank has signed a contract with New York City and will start working here in January," Pellegrini told a news conference after his side's preseason friendly with Olympiakos Piraeus in the US.

"From next Wednesday he will start working with our team and will play for us until January. At the moment he will work with the squad and be a member of the squad.

"He will fight for a position. He knows we have a very good team, we have a lot of players in his position," said Pellegrini.

"He is one player more. We have a lot of games particularly with the Champions League so he's very important for our team."

Manchester City plays Chelsea, the club Lampard served for 13 years, in the league on Sept 21 and there have been media reports the player would prefer not to feature in the game at Etihad Stadium.

"I will talk about all those things with him but he'll be a player for Manchester City and he'll play every game he needs to play," said Pellegrini.

The 36-year-old Lampard is Chelsea's all-time leading scorer, with 211 goals in all competitions after moving to Stamford Bridge from West Ham United in 2001. Meanwhile, Saturday's friendly between Manchester United and Real Madrid at Michigan Stadium set an all-time soccer attendance record for the US when 109,318 fans attended the match.

(China Daily 08/04/2014 page24)