VoV Web Desk

Norwich City: John Ruddy & Sebastien Bassong among seven released by Canaries

Decrease Font Size Increase Font Size Text Size Print This Page

John Ruddy
John Ruddy was back-up to Joe Hart during England’s World Cup 2014 qualifying campaign

Former England goalkeeper John Ruddy is among seven first-team players to be released by Norwich City.

Sebastien Bassong, Steven Whittaker, Ryan Bennett, Michael Turner, Youssouf Mulumbu and Kyle Lafferty will also leave at the end of their contracts.

However, City have extended the contracts of Declan Rudd and Harry Toffolo for a further year.

Both were on loan this season, with goalkeeper Rudd at Charlton and left-back Toffolo at Scunthorpe.

Ruddy, 30, joined the Canaries from Everton in 2010 and twice helped the club win promotion to the Premier League.

He made 242 appearances for Norwich in all competitions and was capped once by England in a friendly against Italy in August 2012.

Defender Bassong, 30, joined from Tottenham for £4m in 2012, featuring 135 times and scoring five goals.

Right-back Whittaker, 32, also arrived at Carrow Road in 2012 from Rangers and set up Nathan Redmond’s goal in the 2014-15 Championship play-off final win over Middlesbrough. He has played 106 games for the club.

Bennett, 27, joined from Peterborough in January 2012, making 119 appearances including 37 this season, while fellow centre-back Turner, 33, signed from Sunderland for an undisclosed fee in July 2012 but had loan spells at Fulham and Wednesday after finding himself out of favour.

Injuries have restricted midfielder Mulumbu, 30, to just 25 games since his move from West Bromwich Albion in the summer of 2015, while forward Lafferty, 29, has made 39 appearances since joining from Palermo in 2014, netting four times.

Norwich sporting director Stuart Webber said: “We’d like to place on record our sincere thanks to all of the players who are moving on for their contribution to the club and wish them all the very best in the next chapter in their careers.”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *