NEW YORK -- New York City FC introduced Frank Lampard in Brooklyn after signing the 36-year-old former Chelsea midfielder to a two-year contract on Thursday.
"Why not New York? Talk about ticking all the boxes. I want to carry on challenging myself." Lampard said at a news conference. "That's a great challenge, isn't it? City of hopes and dreams. That's where you want to go to and play isn't it?"
The club owned by Manchester City and the New York Yankees previously signed David Villa of Atletico Madrid.
Lampard was asked about a widely reported encounter with American travellers in 2001, shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, when he and teammates were fined following reports they were behaving drunkenly and boorishly in front of distraught Americans.
"I was naive and a young boy at the time and I have some regrets," Lampard said. "I categorically didn't insult anyone, set out to insult anyone, behave badly in front of Americans or in fact anyone. I've tried in the last 13 years at Chelsea to build up -- well, to just be a good man really and not just be a good footballer, but a good man off the pitch. ... Unfortunately it was very much misreported at the time in England, and it's actually a chance for me to finally say that."
