VETERAN defender Henning Berg is ready to make Blackburn his last ever club after revealing he will quit English football at the end of next season.

The 32-year-old centre-back, who signed a new one-year extension to his contract at the weekend, wants to return to Norway in 12 months time after helping to spearhead Rovers' excursion into Europe.

And he may even consider calling time on his professional career altogether depending on whether or not the Norwegian national team has a realistic chance of qualifying for the European Championship finals in 2004.

"This is definitely going to be my last year in English football," said the former Manchester United defender.

"It's my plan to return to Norway at the end of the season and I may even decide to retire from football altogether depending on how things go.

"We'll have to see how Norway are doing in qualifying for the European Championships because if they look like they're going to make it then I might carry on. But that's for the future."

Berg, who rejoined Rovers in a £1.75 million move from United 18 months ago, had originally stalled on taking up an extra 12 month option on his contract after his original deal ran out at the end of last season.

But after weighing up his options, he finally committed himself to another year at the weekend and now he's relishing the chance of fighting for his place next season following the recent acquisitions of defensive duo Andy Todd and Sebastien Peltzer.

"The reason I didn't sign straight away was purely down to the fact I wanted to make sure I was making the right choice," said Berg, the only man to have won both Premiership and Worthington Cup winners medals with Rovers.

"I know the manager has brought in a couple of new faces over the summer but then you'd expect that at a Premier League club like this because it's vital you have competition for places, so that doesn't worry me."

Berg freely admits he doesn't know too much about Todd and Peltzer as players but he does believe they have what it takes to make successes of their moves to Ewood as Rovers look to repeat the phenomenal success they have enjoyed over the last 12 months.

"We had a great season finishing 10th and winning the Worthington Cup but up until the last three weeks we were fighting for our lives and we've got to improve on that over the next 12 months," said Berg.

"It's going to be another hard season as we found during the second half of the last campaign and we've still got some improving to do as a team because the Premier League is getting better and better.

"Manchester City, for example, have made some very good signings since they got promoted but we've got some very good players, too, and hopefully we can prove that.

"I don't know too much about either of our two new lads but Andy Todd trained with us towards the back end of last season and he looked a good player.

"And Sebastien also came over for a couple of spells on trial and he looked strong and quick so they should give us a bit more strength in depth."