Southampton captain James Ward-Prowse signs new five-year contract with club

Southampton [UK], Aug 17 (ANI): Southampton on Monday announced that its captain James Ward-Prowse has signed a new five-year contract with the club.
"Southampton Football Club is delighted to announce that its captain, James Ward-Prowse, has signed a new five-year contract at St Mary's," the club said in a statement.
The 25-year-old midfielder, who has been with Saints since the age of eight, agreed to the new deal ahead of the 2020/21 season and is now set to take his association with the club beyond 20 years as a result.
Ward-Prowse, who achieved the incredible feat of playing every minute of the latest Premier League campaign, has featured a total of 278 times for the senior team across all competitions already in his career, scoring 24 goals.
Expressing elation over signing a new deal, Ward-Prowse said Southampton is a club 'very close' to his heart.
"I think everybody knows it's a club that's very close to my heart," the club's official website quoted Ward-Prowse as saying.
"I started out here as an eight-year-old and just had that goal of wanting to reach the first-team, and my appreciation for the club is so big, because the people within it and the infrastructure has allowed me to follow my dream as a young boy who wanted to play professional football," he added.
Southampton manager Ralph Hasenhuttl said: "I have said before that Prowsey is a player who shows everything that Southampton Football Club is about."
"It is not only his story of being developed as a player here, but also the commitment and attitude he shows in his work. He was not playing so much when I arrived, but he has listened and worked on every aspect of his game, and that is why he has reached the level he is now at," he added. (ANI)