Cardiff City striker Michael Chopra has completed his £1.5 million move to the Blues, signing a three-year deal.

The 27-year-old, whose fee is officially undisclosed, says he sees joining the Town as a new challenge: "I enjoyed my time at Cardiff but this is a new start for me at Ipswich and I'm looking forward to it.

"I spoke to the manager and was impressed with his plans for the club. I know some of the players here as well and from talking to them, it was clear there is real ambition at Ipswich.

"I can't wait to get going and the target is to help the club reach the Premier League."

Boss Paul Jewell added: "Michael is a top quality striker who has a terrific goals to games ratio.

"He is a clever player with good pace and has a proven track record when it comes to putting the ball in the net.

"He's ambitious and so are we. He's the type of player we are looking for to help take us forward. He will bring proven quality to the squad and I'm delighted to have him at the club."

Chief executive Simon Clegg is pleased to have completed the club's first signing of the summer: "We're obviously delighted to have added Michael to the squad. It's a signing that I'm sure will excite our supporters."

His Cardiff counterpart Gethin Jenkins paid tribute to Chopra's time with the Bluebirds: "I would like to put on record our thanks and best wishes for Michael and his future career. He has provided us with some fond memories and goals, but it's understandable that he seeks a fresh challenge.

"We now continue the process of securing a manager and a squad to challenge in the Championship next season and will look forward to seeing both Michael and Ipswich at Cardiff City Stadium and Portman Road during the 2011/12 campaign."

As first revealed by TWTD, Chopra was at Town yesterday for talks and to undergo a medical with the negotiations being concluded earlier today. With the player understood to have returned home and with Jewell and Clegg both away from the club at present, no press conference is planned for today.

Town, who previously targeted the former Sunderland and Newcastle man during Roy Keane’s time in charge, are understood to have turned their attention back to Chopra late last month after having a £2.3 million offer for Doncaster striker Billy Sharp turned down.

An initial offer of £1 million was turned down by the managerless Welsh club but a subsequent £1.5 million bid was accepted by the play-off semi-finalists.

A one-time trainee at his hometown club Newcastle, Chopra, who qualifies to play for India via his father, scored 11 goals in 28 starts and 11 sub appearances for Cardiff during 2010/11, despite being in and out of the side due to injuries.

Overall, Chopra, who also had loan spells with Watford, Nottingham Forest and Barnsley before joining Cardiff for the first time from the Magpies for £500,000 in June 2006, has scored 65 goals in 142 starts and 20 sub appearances over his two permanent spells and two periods on loan with the Welsh side.

In July 2007 the 5ft 9in tall frontman joined Roy Keane's Premier League Sunderland for £5 million, rejoining Cardiff permanently for £4 million two years later after successful spells on loan in the second half of 2008/09.

Photo: ITFC

Photo: Action Images

stringtheory added 10:33 - Jun 11 What a relief! Apparently he delayed signing yesterday because Clegg refused to call him by his name and kept referring to him as 'Cardiff reject'. Clegg then continued to taunt him by saying that the club would now have store all the pies off-site.
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TractorRoyNo1 added 18:16 - Jun 12 if we had ambition we would have paid the £3-4million that Cardiff wanted it 2-3 years ago, instead we wasted £1m on Scotland (don't even mention Piss-kin) and are now paying £1.5m when he is 2 years older and more injury prone - "ambition my arse"
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itfcjc added 09:58 - Jun 19 Get in there chops
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