LONDON: Former Arsenal midfielder Alex Song has joined West Ham United on a season-long loan from Barcelona, the Premier League club announced on Saturday.

The 26-year-old Cameroon international left Arsenal for Barcelona in 2012, but he failed to nail down a first-team place at Camp Nou and made only 39 appearances over the past two seasons.

He was paraded on the pitch at Upton Park prior to West Ham’s home game against Southampton on Saturday.

“I’m very happy to be here and very happy to see the guys and the fans today and to start to do my job for West Ham United,” Song told the West Ham website.

“I think this is very important for me to be coming back to London to West Ham United, which is a club with ambition to build a new stadium and become a big club. I am very excited to be part of this project.

“For me, when I was in Spain, I always said that if I was to leave one day, I would return to the Premier League.”

Published in Dawn, August 31th, 2014