Damien Duff completed his move from English champions Chelsea to Premiership rivals Newcastle United.
Republic of Ireland winger Duff, 27, passed a medical while the first team were on their way back from Norway after beating Lillestrom in an Intertoto Cup tie.
He has signed a five-year contract at St James' Park, with the fee undisclosed but reported to be in the region of 10 million pounds (18.5 million pounds).
Duff helped Chelsea win the Premiership twice but the competition for places, heightened after Michael Ballack's arrival, meant he would not be guaranteed first-team football at Stamford Bridge in the coming campaign.
Newcastle manager Glenn Roeder, before Duff's medical was completed, told Setanta Sports 2: "I can't tell you how pleased I am about getting a player of that quality.
"I would think it will excite our fans as well. I played for Newcastle - admittedly a long time ago - but we had the likes of Chrissy Waddle playing in that team that I played in and (the fans) love ball-players who can go past players and get crosses in, and Damien is that type of player."
Roeder said he hoped Duff, who will formally be unveiled as a Newcastle player on Monday, will be the first of several new signings.
"We've got a list of players now that we want to start working our way through," he explained.
Duff also attracted interest from Tottenham and Liverpool.
He joined Chelsea in a 17 million pounds (31.5 million dollars) move from Blackburn in 2003 but his place in the first team was threatened by the pre-season signing of Germany skipper Ballack.
Chelsea were unwilling to sell Duff to London rivals Tottenham for seven million pounds (13 million dollars) but were ready to deal with another Premiership side for a higher price given they already had the likes of Joe Cole, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Arjen Robben battling for wide positions.
"I like Damien as a player and as a person. I listened to him for a couple of hours and I could understand what he has in his mind," Jose Mourinho, Chelsea's manager, said earlier this week.
"After that it becomes business. He's such a good player we will do good business with another club."
The move will be a tonic for Newcastle supporters who last season saw captain and centre-forward Alan Shearer retire and then had to cope with the sight of seeing star striker Michael Owen injured while on World Cup duty with England in Germany.
Duff joined Asier Del Horno on his way out of Stamford Bridge on Friday after Chelsea agreed to sell the Spanish defender to Valencia.
