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Chelsea send Pizarro on loan to Werder

  • Story Highlights
  • Claudio Pizarro returns to Werder Bremen on loan from Premier League Chelsea
  • Portsmouth midfielder Pedro Mendes moves to Scottish giants Rangers
  • Blackburn close to signing former Liverpool striker Robbie Fowler
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(CNN) -- Peruvian international striker Claudio Pizarro is returning to Bundesliga Werder Bremen on a season-long loan from Chelsea.

Pizarro has gone back to Werder Bremen where he enjoyed considerable success.

"Claudio is one of the top strikers in Europe. He gives us more quality," Werder's general manager Klaus Allofs told Associated Press on Friday, one day before the club's league opener at Arminia Bielefeld.

Pizarro, who dropped out of first team contention at Premier League giants Chelsea last season, will not play in that match.

Werder did not release the terms of the deal but it does not have an option of a full transfer after one season.

"Money played a secondary role," Pizarro said, adding that the prospect of playing in the Champions League was the main reason for his move.

Pizarro, 29, played 56 Bundesliga games for Werder between 1999 and 2001 and scored 29 goals before moving to Bayern Munich where he scored 71 goals in 174 games.

In other big transfer news, Pedro Mendes joined Rangers from Premier League Portsmouth on Friday in a three-year deal worth £3 million ($5.5 million)

The 29-year-old Portuguese midfielder has signed in time to play for Rangers in their Scottish league encounter with Hearts on Saturday.

Mendes, who was a Champions League winner with Porto in 2004, had his first taste of Premier League football with Tottenham Hotspur before moving to Portsmouth.

He was a member of Pompey's FA Cup winning squad last season, but has been sold to finance other spending by manager Harry Redknapp.

He is determined to stop Celtic from winning a fourth straight Scottish title.

"It's time for that to change," he told Associated Press on Friday.

"Everyone here wants to be champions again and to bring happiness to the fans. It's such a great club and there is the chance to fight for the championship and win cups here. When you join a club like Rangers, you can't expect anything but to win things."

Blackburn manager Paul Ince is set to sign former Liverpool striker Robbie Fowler on a permanent contract.

Fowler, 33, has been on trial at Ewood Park since July and has impressed Ince enough to convince his former Anfield team-mate to start discussing a deal.

"I think we are close to doing something with Robbie," Ince told Blackburn's Web site.

"He's a world-class striker and if he can get fit and sharp then he will always score goals at any level. I'll sit down with the chairman now and discuss where we are going to go from here."

Ince also insisted that Manchester City can forget about signing Paraguay striker Roque Santa Cruz and denied reports left-back Stephen Warnock has handed in a transfer request.

Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.

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