Published: Thursday, 6th August, 2009 7:00pm

Ivar named as Royals skipper

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BRENDAN Rodgers has confirmed that Icelandic international Ivar Ingimarsson will be his Reading captain for the 2009/10 season.

The new Royals boss will take charge of his first competitive game when the Championship season kicks-off against Nottingham Forest on Saturday.

And this evening he has chosen Ingimarsson as the man to lead Reading into that 'new era'.

The Northern Irishman said: "Ivar Ingimarsson will be club captain and the vice captain will be Alex Pearce.

"I wanted to come in and be fair to all of the players, to let them have the opportunity to show me that they wanted to be captain.

"I was aware of who was captain here before, but it was going to be a new start, it was going to be a new era, and I wanted to give those who perhaps wanted that chance to become captain the opportunity to show that.

"And I think that looking at it over the four weeks many of them are natural leaders but I feel that Ivar, in terms of his respect that he has within the group, is the best candidate."

Ingimarsson, who will turn 32 later this month, was Steve Coppell's first signing when he joined Reading in October 2003 from Wolves.

Since then he has made 205 appearances for the club and was named player of the year during the successful 2006/07 Premiership season.

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