Official: Byram is a hammer

Sam Byram is officially a Hammer. He has signed a four and a half year contract thought to be worth £30,000 per week with Leeds receiving a transfer fee believed to be close to £3.8m. He will wear the No.22 shirt.

WHUFC.com announced this afternoon :“West Ham United are delighted to announce the signing of highly-rated full-back Sam Byram from Leeds United.”

“The Essex-born player joins the Hammers, who have fought off strong competition to capture the promising 22-year-old, on a four-and-a-half year contract for an undisclosed fee.”

Byram told the club website “I’m unbelievably proud and happy to join a Club as big as this, I’m just looking forward to what the future holds and hopefully I can achieve things with the team going forward. It’s a childhood dream of mine to play in the Premier League, so to have the chance to get into a team like this and I just want to get my head down, work hard and hopefully get a chance.”

“I spoke to the manager and he is one of the main reasons which attracted me to West Ham. I think he’s done unbelievably well with his team so far, so I’m really looking forward to working with him and his staff.My uncle and my cousin are big West Ham fans and have bought their tickets for the new Stadium. My uncle was down here yesterday getting a shirt with my name on the back! It’s nice to have them down here and they’ll help me settle so I’m looking forward to seeing them.”

“I’m also really looking forward to seeing the new Stadium in person. That was another big part in me wanting to come here. It’s a massive part of the future of the Club and I can’t wait to see and hopefully play in it.”

Sam was born in Thurrock Essex before moving to York as a child where he played for the York city’s Schools team before joining Leeds United at the age of eleven in 2005.