UK Football

By Bate Felix

LONDON, Aug 13 (Reuters) - England midfielder Frank Lampard has signed a new five-year contract with Chelsea, the Premier League club said on Wednesday.

Lampard, 30, will stay at Stamford Bridge under new coach Luiz Felipe Scolari following several months of stalled talks and speculation of a move to Inter Milan.

The club said financial details were confidential.

Lampard had been tipped to join former Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho at Inter after the Portuguese coach said the midfielder was the best professional he had worked with in his career.

"Personal reasons were very important for me to make sure I make the right decision I needed to make for myself and for my family," Lampard told a news conference.

"I realised how happy I am at the club and with my team mates."

Inter president Massimo Moratti said last month that Lampard, capped 61 times for England, wanted to join the Italian champions but Chelsea were not willing to negotiate his departure.

"It has taken a while to get the deal done and there has been a bit of compromise on both sides," Lampard said.

"I've just turned 30 and I see it as my final big contract, and I will play out my days at Chelsea. Hopefully these will be the best five years of my career."

SERIOUS MESSAGE

Lampard said the message his deal sent out was that Chelsea were serious title contenders.

"For the past few years we have been challenging for everything. That is one of the reasons I wanted to stay."

Lampard said he was encouraged by team captain John Terry and new manager Luiz Felipe Scolari's vision for the team after a disappointing season without any silverware.

"I had a chat with Scolari, he said he want me to be at the club, he told me what he wanted for the club and he spoke very passionately about it," Lampard said.

"We are strong as we have ever been going into this season, We have not win the title for two years, we didn't win anything last year and that is quite a nice setting to have."

"A disappointing year sometimes remind you of exactly what you want, we are all feeling the same way, we have a chance of not only winning domestically but also winning in Europe."

Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon, said: "While we had approaches from Inter Milan we were never going to sell Lampard. Chelsea never sell their best players."

Lampard joined Chelsea in 2001 from West Ham United where his father, also Frank, had played most of his career.

After a couple of slow seasons he became a favourite with the Stamford Bridge crowd under Claudio Ranieri and Mourinho.

Lampard has won two Premier League titles, two League Cups and the FA Cup with the club and was their top scorer in the 2004-5 and 2005-6 seasons.