Cardiff have signed Ireland international James Collins on a free transfer. The 30-year-old, who is out of contract with Luton at the end of the season, moves to Wales on a two-year deal.
Collins is said to have chosen Cardiff over a number of other Championship clubs. Middlesbrough, Bristol City, Coventry, Preston and Derby are all reported to have been interested in signing the striker.
James Collins set to join Cardiff
Cardiff - who finished eighth in the Championship this season - are managed by Mick McCarthy. The former Ireland manager gave Collins his international debut in a 3-1 win against Bulgaria in 2019. He now has eight caps and two goals to his name.
"It's a really good signing for us," said McCarthy.
"He's been on an upward trajectory all his career, going from the lower leagues to the Championship and he's kept scoring goals.
"I like when they've come up the hard way, coming through the school of hard knocks to keep progressing and getting to a higher standard.
"He's ended up an international footballer through all of that and that's due to his hard work, diligence and ability to score goals.
"He's got a great scoring record. He's durable, he's tough and he'll be one of us. I'm delighted to have him."
The Coventry-born player joined Luton from Crawley Town in 2017. He scored 72 goals in 183 appearances for the club. 13 of those goals have been scored this season. That is despite his game time being limited since the arrival of Elijah Adebayo from Walsall in January. Since late February, he started just four of 16 games.
According to the Northern Echo, Middlesbrough held talks with Collins last week with manager Neil Warnock said to have been keen to sign the player.
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