Espanyol have agreed to sign Birmingham City striker Walter Pandiani for £1m.

The Uruguayan international joined Birmingham from Deportivo Coruna in a deal worth £3m last August.

Daniel Sanchez Llibre, president of Espanyol, confirmed the deal.

“He’s now an Espanyol player,” he said. “His desire to come was the key to the signing. It was a question of coming to Espanyol or staying where he was in England.”

The 29-year-old scored six goals in 35 appearances for Birmingham, who are struggling against relegation.

“Walter is not a bad player and he did well recently against Manchester United and Chelsea which was commendable considering he knew we were looking to move him back to Spain,” said Birmingham’s co-owner David Sullivan.

“It’s not what any of us wanted but he has just not been able to adapt to the game in England as we expected.

“You’ve got to take your hat off to his commitment towards the club and Walter has scored some important goals for us but he hasn’t quite fired as we thought he might and sometimes a change of environment does everyone good.”

Espanyol will be Pandiani’s third Spanish club after Deportivo and Real Mallorca. The former Penarol striker scored 45 goals in 119 league games for Depor and Mallorca.

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