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Report: QPR to sign Jermain Defoe during January transfer window

Paul Childs / Action Images

Queens Park Rangers are set to take another run at Toronto FC's Jermain Defoe in January following their failed bid to sign the English international during the summer transfer window.

Reports out of London suggest QPR manager Harry Redknapp is confident Defoe will make the switch and that the club have already agreed to a three-year deal with Defoe that will pay him roughly 90,000 pounds a week.

One obstacle facing Defoe and a move back to his native land is an agreement with his Major League Soccer team, Toronto FC, whom he signed a four-year deal with in January.

“Jermain needs to decide if he wants to be here. If he does, then I think he’s one of the great strikers in MLS," MLSE boss Tim Leiweke told the Toronto Star. "If he does not, then that situation is ours to ultimately decide — not his — because we own his contract. We’re not going to give him away. And so we’re in a good spot."

“The one thing I can promise our fans — one way or another, this will end well for TFC. (I) guarantee it.”

Leiweke went on to defend the club's decision to buy Defoe, but hinted at getting a hefty monetary return if he's sold.

“As I’ve said before, Jermain Defoe was not a mistake,” he said. “He is a very good player and I think in his heart, in his soul, a good man. But we have to determine does he want to be here. There’s no DP that is ultimately going to leave this organization and we go backwards on the capital invested. That’s not going to happen.”

The London Evening Standard reports that QPR agreed to a 8,000,000 pound transfer offer in the summer before TFC's reluctancy to let Defoe leave during the MLS season put an end to the deal.

“We tried all day with Jermain. He was keen to come. We agreed a deal with Toronto but they wouldn’t release him," Redknapp said following the end of the summer transfer deadline. "There is every chance he will come in January. Almost certainly, I think we will go back in for him. I’ve signed him so many times. I’ve taken him everywhere.”

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